I  uu-rini.r 


$B    ni    bbE 


II 


^ 


CATHOLIC  THOUGHT  AND  THINKERS 

Press  Ofinions 

As  the  industry  of  Lecky  produced  a  "  History  of  Ration- 
alism in  Europe,"  a  work  marred  by  the  author's  inadequate 
acquaintance  with  the  intellectual  history  of  Christianity, 
so  it  is  now  the  object  of  a  group  of  Catholic  scholars  to 
write  in  successive  monographs  an  account  of  the  develop- 
ment of  Catholic  thought  from  the  dawn  of  the  Christian 
era,  and  this  series — called  "Catholic  Thought  and  Thinkers'* 
— ^has  been  started  by  Father  C.  C.  Martindale  in  a  volume 
styled  Introductory.  In  five  chapters  the  author  surveys 
the  interplay  between  orthodoxy  and  heterodoxy  during 
five  distinct  periods  of  Church  history — from  the  beginning 
to  the  death  of  Origen  (254),  from  Origen  to  the  death 
of  Augustine  (430),  from  the  Sack  of  Rome  (476)  to  the 
decline  of  the  Middle  Age  (1303),  thence  to  the  Revolution 
(1789),  and,  finally,  in  the  Modern  era.  Thus  the  frame- 
work is  erected  in  which  the  various  great  Catholic  thinkers 
will  find  their  respective  places,  shov/ing  the  continuity 
of  Christian  tradition  and  its  orderly  process  of  development. 
But  Father  Martindale's  work  is  more  than  a  framework : 
brilliant  little  pen  pictures  of  the  leaders  of  Christian  thought, 
illuminating  afergus  of  their  historical  surroundings,  apt 
summaries  of  the  inheritance  and  legacy  of  each  epoch, 
make  the  book  exceedingly  interesting,  and  will  make,  we 
hope,  the  public  for  which  the  series  is  designed  eager  for 
its  speedy  and  regular  appearance. 

THE  MONTH. 

A  series  of  volumes  which  ought  to  prove  of  great  interest 
to  the  general  educated  public.  Their  aim  is  to  provide 
a  more  or  less  complete  account  of  Catholic  thought  from 
the  earliest  times  down  to  the  present  day,  and  thinkers 
whose  orthodoxy  is  not  beyond  suspicion  will  be  included 
in  the  series.  Father  Martindale  is  responsible  for  the 
Introductory  volume,  and  his  historical  survey,  as  we 
should  expect  from  him,  is  able  and  broad-minded. 

THE  CHURCH  TIMES 


CATHOLIC  fHOUGHT  AND  THINKERS 

Truly  an  ambitious  scheme !  Yet  if  we  may  conjecture 
from  xhc  success  of  FatJier  Martiudale's  Introductory,  the 
scheme  is  hkely  to  be  achieved  with  distinction.  To  com- 
press >yithia  one  hundred  and  sixty  pages  an  account  of 
CathoLc  'thought"  from  the  days  before  the  Council 
of  Ephesus  to  tiie  last  Ecumenical  Council  of  the  Vatican 
IS  m  Itself  somctlimg  of  an  intellectual  feat.  Needless  to 
remark  m  so  comprehensive  a  sketch  little  can  be  said  in 
particular  of  the  individual  «  Thinkers."  Father  Martin- 
dale  has  fortunately  a  very  happy  manner  of  saying  the  little 
that  IS  just  enough  to  indicate  the  CathoHc  Thinker's  place 
m  the  historical  setting.  7-1,^-  ^^-r.,,  i"   ^^ 

*5-  THE  CATHOLIC  TIMES. 

.y^'^^Zt^^  r  '"''*  '  ^°°^  ^"^  ^°  ^»ch  pleasure  as" 
Sill       »  T^'V^^f^^^  ^'""^  "Catholic  Thought  and 
Thinkers,"  by  C.  C.  Martindale,  S.J.    The  purpose  of  the 
series  of  which  this  is  the  title  is' to  ""provide  us  3  h  a  en! 

of  Z!hf  •  ^f  ^°^'  ^'^°"2^^'  ^""^'^y^^  '-  *-  n^^kers 
h!n^rt  f,"""u  '"'T^^^'^S  ^g«-  This  programme  has 
happ  ly  caUed  forth  an  Introductory  volume  which  provides 
exactly  what  was  wanted-an  explanation  of  the  series  and 
a  rapid  panoramic  view  of  the  procession  of  think*s.  This 
by  no  ineans  easy  task  has  been  well  performed  by  Father 
Martmdale;    the   present  volume,  besides  being   of   value 

othr^''/  -'V-^t''^"  P'^"^^  '  '"^^t  serviceable  aid 
Snn!  ''f^''''''  ^'  ^^<=°Iog7  and  especially  in  the  history  of 
pMosophy,  and  readers  of  the  series  wiU  do  weU  to  k^eep 
this  Introduction  always  by  them.  ^ 

CATHOLIC  BOOK  NOTES. 

frn^Tt'  ' I'f  ''"^  °/ '^"^  development  of  Catholic  thought 
Ind  t/  p"/''^  '^'°^/^  '^'  Controversies  to  Aquinas 
and  tiie  Reformation,  and  then  through  the  great  Roman 

SEtw'  theologians  to  the  Catholic  re,faissance,Tut 
nhS,  ,  ^"Tu  ^^Tl°P'"««  of  European  moral  and 
philosophy,  and  shows  how  Catholic  influence  reacted  on 
the  general  tendencies  of  the  Cliristian  era. 

THE  GLASCOIV  HERALD. 


CATHOLIC  THOUGHT  &  THINKERS  SERIES 
Edited  by  C.  C.  Martindale,  S,J.,  M.A. 


Erasmus  of  Rotterdam 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/erasmusofrotterdOOwilkrich 


lOA^V  STACK 


NIHIL  OBSTAT:  GEORGIUS  JOYCE,  SJ„  CENSOR  DEPUTATUS, 
IMPRIMATUR:  EDM.  CAN,  SURMONT,  VIC.  GEN, 
WESTMONASTERII :  DIE  lo  NOVEMBRIS  1921. 


E7W5 

lUla 


760 


Editor's    Preface 

THE  scope  of  this  series  can  be  very 
accurately  defined. 

It  is  not  meant  to  be  a  history  of  the 
Christian  Church,  nor  even  of  Christian 
theology.  Nor  is  it  intended  to  set  out 
the  influence  exercised  in  the  world  by  the 
Catholic  Church  in  every  department  alike, 
social,  for  example,  artistic,  or  even  moral. 
But  Christian  men  have  thought  about 
their  Faith  in  itself  ;  and  about  the  world 
they  live  in,  because  of  their  Faith,  and 
in  relation  to  it.  These  volumes,  there- 
fore, aim  at  giving  the  reader  pictures  of 
eminent  Catholic  thinkers,^  and  a  sufficient 
statement  of  what  they  thought,  and  of  the 
substantial  contribution  which  they  thus 
made  to  the  history  of  ideas  in  the  world, 
and  to  Christian  civilization  in  particular. 
The  writers  have  aimed  at  allowing 
their  subjects,  as  far  as  possible,  to  speak 
for  themselves  :  only  a  necessary  minimum 
of  comment  or  criticism  has  been  supplied. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  has  been  wished  that 
not  bloodless  schemes  of  thought,  merely, 

*  This  is  not  meant  to  preclude  this  series  from  containing, 
if  desirable,  studies  of  men  who,  like  Origen  or  John  Eriugena, 
may  not  have  been  fully  orthodox,  or  who,  like  Lamennais, 
have  ended  in  rupture,  even,  from  Catholic  obedience. 

7 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

nor  abstract  theories,  should  be  made  avail- 
able to  our  readers  ;  nor  again,  detached 
"  lives  *'  of  men  and  isolated  personalities. 
Therefore  a  preliminary  and  a  concluding 
volume  have  been  planned,  in  which,  re- 
spectively, are  set  out  the  massive  historical 
movement  v^ithin  which  these  men  were 
born,  developed,  and  exerted  their  in- 
fluence ;  and,  the  continuous  currents  of 
thought  which  they  necessarily  created,  de- 
flected, accelerated  or  checked.  It  should  be 
added  that  the  respective  authors  have  freely 
formed  and  expressed  their  own  estimates  of 
their  subject-matter,  and  that  the  series  as 
such  is  not  responsible  for  these.  Nor  has  it 
been  intended  that  the  method  of  treatment 
and  its  application  should  be  absolutely 
homogeneous  in  all  the  volumes  alike. 

Thus  these  volumes  are  not  meant,  then, 
at  all  as  propaganda  or  apologetic.  They 
hope  to  supply  an  organic  survey  of 
Catholic  thought  and  a  *'  live  genealogy  " 
of  Catholic  thinkers  ;  so  that,  from  a 
comprehensive  view  and  continuous  vital 
contact,  each  reader  may  draw  such  general 
conclusions  as  he  is  able  ;  or  enrich, 
substantiate,  or  correct,  what  he  already 
possesses. 

8 


Contents 

EDITOR'S  PREFACE        .         .       pp.  7, 8 
AUTHOR'S  PREFACE     .         .  pp.  15,  16 

CHAPTER  I 

SOCIETY  IN  THE  EARLY  SIXTEENTH 
CENTURY 

Erasmus's  birth  and  parentage — The  spread 
of  the  Renaissance — Its  character  in  Italy, 
France,  and  the  Empire — Its  Neo-Paganism 
and  materialistic  spirit — ^The  sixteenth  century 
as  the  beginning  of  modern  Europe — ^The 
antithesis  between  the  Renaissance  and  the 
mediaeval  spirit — Comparison  between  the 
new  learning  in  Italy,  France,  the  Empire,  and 
England — ^The  ground  exceedingly  favourable 
for  the  spread  of  the  Reformation  in  Germany, 
England,  and  the  Netherlands      .      pp.  17-35 

CHAPTER  II 

THE  YOUTH  AND   MATURITY   OF 
ERASMUS 

Erasmus's  appearance  and  education — He 
enters  the  Augustinian  priory  of  Steyn — 
Ordained  priest  by  the  Bishop  of  Utrecht — 
Dangers  of  entering  an  order  without  real 
vocation — Dispensed  from  the  monastic  life 
and  enters  the  service  of  the  Bishop  of  Cambrai 
— ^He  goes  to  the  University  of  Paris — In  Paris 
he  makes  the  acquaintance  of  William  Blount, 

9 


CONTENTS 

which  is  the  occasion  of  his  visit  to  England — 
Travel  a  feature  of  the  Middle  Ages  and 
Insularity  a  product  of  the  Reformation — In 
London  Erasmus  began  his  life-long  friendship 
with  More,  Colet,  and  Warham — He  leaves 
England  :  troubles  at  Dover — His  determina- 
tion to  visit  Italy  and  methods  of  obtaining  the 
necessary  money — His  second  visit  to  England 
and  departure  for  Bologna  ;  interview  with 
Julius  II — His  third  visit  to  England  and  the 
Cambridge  period — Henry  VIIPs  offer  of 
patronage ;  Erasmus  Rector  of  Aldington  and 
Warham's  kindness — The  pilgrimage  to  St. 
Thomas,  Canterbury,  and  to  Our  Lady, 
Walsingham ;  reflections  on  pilgrimages — • 
Erasmus  again  at  Cambridge — The  appearance 
of  his  Greek  New  Testament  and  Latin 
version  ;  the  beginning  of  his  fame — His  final 
departure  from  England      .  .      pp.  36-58 

CHAPTER  III 

HIS  ZENITH  AND  THE  BEGINNINGS 
OF  PROTESTANTISM 

Erasmus  summoned  to  the  Court  at  Brussels 
— Fresh  trouble  over  his  dispensation — Corre- 
spondence with  Servatius  Rogerus,  prior  of 
Steyn — Ammonius  undertakes  to  obtain  a 
complete  dispensation,  which  is  granted  by 
Leo  X— The  Reuchlin  controversy — Leo  X's 
character    and    magnificence — The    party    of 

10 


CONTENTS 

conservative  reform  and  the  appearance  of 
Luther — Erasmus's  fear  and  disHke  of  Luther 
— He  urges  the  Elector  of  Mainz  to  moderation 
in  the  matter  of  Tetzel  and  the  Indulgences — 
His  New  Testament  causes  alarm  to  the 
conservatives,  although  it  appeared  with  the 
approval  of  Leo  X — Erasmus's  chief  opponents 
— Luther's  open  defiance  of  the  Church- 
Erasmus  refuses  him  any  further  support  even 
of  the  hitherto  limited  kind — ^The  Diet  of 
Worms  and  its  results — The  party  of  innovation 
and  heresy  henceforth  irreconcilable — Growing 
suspicion  of  Erasmus's  attitude ;  Erasmus 
supported  by  the  Popes,  but  under  constant 
attacks  shows  some  lack  of  prudence — St. 
Ignatius  and  the  works  of  Erasmus — The 
subsequent  attitude  of  the  Society  of  Jesus 
towards  him       .         .         .         .      pp.  59-86 

CHAPTER  IV 

HIS  TROUBLES  AND  LATER  YEARS 

Open  hostility  to  Luther — Death  of  Leo  X 
and  accession  of  Adrian  VI — His  character, 
austerity,  and  piety — His  determination  to 
correct  abuses — He  appeals  to  Erasmus  to  rise 
in  God's  cause  and  stops  the  Carmelite  attack 
on  him — Adrian's  short  reign  and  his  dis- 
appointments ;  succeeded  by  Clement  VII — 
The  violence  and  iconoclasm  of  the  Reformers 
— Erasmus  and  Ulrich  von  Hutten — Luther's 

II 


CONTENDS 

contemptuous  letter  to  Erasmus — Erasmus 
replies  with  his  De  Libero  Arbitrio — Erasmus's 
triumph  and  the  delight  of  the  Catholic  world 
— Correspondence  with  Melanchthon,  the 
only  reformer  with  whom  Erasmus  continued 
friendly  relations  to  the  end — Erasmus  at 
Basel — Hostility  of  the  Spanish  theologians ; 
Charles  V  uncertain,  but  supports  Erasmus 
secretly — Condition  of  some  monasteries  at 
this  time — The  Reformation  breaks  loose  in 
Basel  and  Erasmus  goes  to  Freiburg-i-B — 
The  question  of  the  nullity  of  Henry  VHI's 
marriage  with  Katherine — Melanchthon  pre- 
sents the  Confession  to  the  Diet  at  Augsburg  ; 
its  moderation ;  its  superiority  over  all  other 
reformed  formulae — Charles  V's  increasing 
hostility  to  the  Reformation  :  the  edict  of 
restoration  and  restitution — Erasmus's  views 
on  the  situation — Erasmus  in  favour  with 
Clement  VH  and  with  the  King  of  the  Romans 
— ^The  schism  in  England  caused  by  Clement's 
inability  to  declare  the  King's  marriage  null 
and  the  progress  of  heresy — Paul  HI  succeeds 
to  the  throne  of  St.  Peter  ;  his  wish  to  appoint 
Fisher  and  Erasmus  Cardinals,  a  proof  of  his 
sincerity  in  the  matter  of  reform — The  judicial 
murder  of  Blessed  Thomas  More  and  Blessed 
John  Fisher — The  effect  of  their  death  upon 
Erasmus — His  illness  and  death  in  Basel — His 
character  and  tastes ;  his  strength  and  weak- 
ness        .....      pp.  87-115 

12 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER  V 

THE  FRIENDS  AND  CORRESPONDENTS 
OF  ERASMUS 

Erasmus  at  Oxford — His  editions  of  the 
Fathers,  and  not  his  New  Testament  nor  his 
texts  of  the  classics,  his  greatest  achievement— 
His  regard  for  the  works  of  St.  Thomas 
Aquinas — The  Morice  Encomium  :  the  out- 
cry in  the  universities  which  its  appearance 
caused — Sir  Thomas  More's  support  of  Greek — 
The  struggle  between  Greeks  a7id  Trojans  at 
Oxford — Polydore  Vergil — The  Julius  Ex- 
clusus :  a  politico-religious  squib ;  Erasmus 
the  probable  author — The  Colloquies — The 
Paraphrases  of  the  New  Testament ;  to  whom 
dedicated  ;  the  praise  bestowed  on  them  from 
suspect  quarters ;  their  drawbacks  as  literature 
for  popular  use— Erasmus's  correspondents ; 
their  remarkable  diversity  ;  amongst  them  were 
included  all  the  most  famous  men  of  the  day — 
Minor  correspondents  ;  Lypsius,  Meyer,  Wil- 
denauer,  Kock ;  Louis  de  Berquin,  a  brilliant 
scholar ;  condemned  by  the  Sorbonne ;  his 
tragical  end — de  Pins,  Vives,  Botzheim,  in- 
timates of  Erasmus  and  staunch  Catholics — 
Erasmus's  work  and  influence — his  undoubted 
Catholicity — Final  reflections.  .     pp.  116-142 

INDEX  OF  NAMES     .         .    pp.  143,  144 


13 


Author's  Preface 


any 
and 


HE  object  of  this  small 
book  is  to  set  out  in  a 
popular,  and  it  is  hoped 
accurate  manner,  the  life, 
works,  and  influence  of 
one  of  the  most  remark- 
-able  men  of  his  own  or  of 
other  time.  The  subject  is  so  wide 
intricate  that  Erasmus,  within  the 
limits  allowed  by  this  series,  must  be 
treated  in  a  more  or  less  inadequate 
manner,  and  his  many-sided  genius  and 
character  does  not  easily  lend  itself  to 
condensation. 

I  have  chiefly  made  use  of  the  following 
works,  besides  a  few  others,  to  which 
reference  is  made  in  the  text : 

The  Leiden  edition  of  Erasmus's  works, 
1706. 

Erasmus^  his  Life  and  Character  shown  in 
his  Correspondence  and  Works.  Drummond. 
Oxford  Rejormers.     Seebohm. 
XJlrich  von  Hutten.     Strauss*     Leipzig, 
1871. 

Geschichte  der  Papste  im  Zeitalter  der 
Renaissance.     L.  Pastor. 

IS 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus.  J.  A. 
Froude. 

And,  above  all,  up  to  1520,  the  monu- 
mental edition  of  Erasmuses  works  and 
notes  of  his  life  by  Mr.  P,  S.  Allen,  without 
which  no  writer  on  Erasmus  could  take 
many  steps.  My  aim  throughout  has  been 
to  portray  Erasmus  as  he  really  was  ;  to 
depict  his  influence,  which  was  small,  on 
his  own  times,  but  far  greater  in  more 
modern  days,  and  to  illustrate  his  char- 
acter so  that  it  may  be  more  easy  to  under- 
stand how  so  brilliant  a  man  and  so 
learned  a  scholar,  who  never  ceased  to  be 
Catholic,  fell  out  of  favour  not  only  with 
Protestants,  as  was  inevitable,  but  with 
those  Catholics  whom,  as  Dr.  K.  Hart- 
felder  so  eloquently  observes,  he  had 
never  ceased  to  serve,  and  whose  religion 
was  our  own. 

Maurice  Wilkinson, 

Oxford,  May  1921, 


16 


Erasmus  of  Rotterdam 


Chapter  I 


SOCIETT  IN  THE  EARLY  SIX- 
TEENTH CENTURY 

RASMUS  was  born  at 
Rotterdam  between  the 
years  1465  and  1469. 
Dr.  Richter  and  some 
other  authorities  have 
decided  on  1466  as  the 
most  probable  date.  His 
own  statements  as  to  his  birth  are  conflict- 
ing, but  it  took  place  during  the  night  of 
October  27-28  ;  Erasmus  himself  ob- 
served the  day  of  St.  Simon  and  St.  Jude 
as  his  birthday.  The  name  of  the  family 
was  Gierrard,  which  by  an  obvious  play 
on  the  word  was  Latinized  into  Desiderius 
and  afterwards  Graecized  into  Erasmus. 
His  birth  is  involved  in  some  mystery, 
but  the  matter  is  of  no  very  great 
importance.  The  dispensation  of  Julius 
II,  1 506,  describes  him  as  being  de  soluto 
genitusy  which  is  altogether  against  the 
B  17 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

contemporary  rumour  of  his  being  the  son 
of  a  priest  ;  on  the  other  hand,  the  more 
ample  dispensation  of  Leo  X,  1517, 
describes  the  defect  of  birth  in  far  stronger 
terms.  We  know  that  Erasmus  had  an 
elder  brother,  Peter,  for  whom  he  had  but 
little  regard  :  so  the  connection  between 
his  parents  must  have  lasted  for  a  long  time. 
When  Erasmus  became  famous  and  made 
enemies,  as  was  the  way  of  Renaissance 
scholars,  the  more  damaging  version  of  his 
birth  was  probably  circulated.  Froude 
was  inclined  to  doubt  the  whole  business, 
but  it  is  clear  that  Erasmus  was  in  fact 
illegitimate,  and  that  his  father,  a  man  of 
position  and  education,  either  by  trickery 
or  by  accident,  was  prevented  from  marry- 
ing the  mother.^ 

Erasmus  was  born  on  the  edge  of  that 
extraordinary  outburst  of  art,  learning, 
and  culture  which  had  indeed  already 
appeared  in  Italy,  but  did  not  attain  its 
zenith  until  some  twenty  years  later.     He 

*  The  Compe7idium  Vitae  Erasmi  was  published  in  1607 
by  Paul  Remba,  Professor  of  History  at  Leiden.  The  infor- 
mation given  in  it  is  very  important,  its  authenticity  has  been 
much  disputed,  but  Mr.  P.  S.  Allen,  Oxford,  accepts  it  as 
genuine. 

18 


SOCIETr  IN  EARLY  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY 

was  born  at  the  death  of  one  era  and 
at  the  birth  of  another,  an  event  which 
may  be  said  to  have  influenced  the  ideas 
of  education  and  the  general  outlook  on 
life,  until  the  disruption  of  Europe  and 
of  society  which  began  with  the  present 
century  and  culminated  in  the  recent 
war.  The  Renaissance  was  already  in 
blossom  in  Italy,  but  it  required  the 
invasion  of  Charles  VIII  to  scatter  the 
seeds  into  the  lands  beyond  the  Alps. 
That  invasion  marks  the  beginning  of 
modern  history,  and  Addington  Symonds, 
with  his  true  instinct  for  the  picturesque, 
describes  the  battle  of  Fornovo  as  the 
moment  of  the  birth  of  the  new  world  ; 
even  as  Goethe  said  of  himself  at  Valmy 
that  he  had  been  present  at  the  birth  of  a 
new  order  of  things.  Erasmus  regarded 
with  appreciation  the  names  of  Marsilio 
Ficino,  Poliziano,  and  Pico  della  Miran- 
dola  ;  he  never,  of  course,  knew  any  of 
them  personally.  These  famous  scholars, 
Florentine  at  least  by  domicile,  were  for 
long  the  admiration  and  inspiration  of  the 
learned  world.  Poliziano  undoubtedly 
still   enjoys  a  reputation,   Ficino   is   un- 

19 


.  ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

known  except  to  the  historian,  and  Pico 
lives  not  so  much  for  his  learning,  which 
was  confused  if  extensive,  as  for  his  beauty, 
his  charm,  his  high  birth,  and  sweet  piety. 
Luther  was  not  the  first  to  astonish  the 
world  with  theses  and  to  invite  attack. 
Pico  wrote  some  hundreds,  not  ninety- 
five  ;  many  were  unorthodox,  which  he 
never  seriously  intended  to  maintain,  some 
were  absurd,  and  one  at  least,  *'  that  the  soul 
knows  nothing  clearly  and  distinctly  but 
itself,"  was  extremely  subtle,  and  in  it 
some  have  seen  the  germ  of  the  whole 
Cartesian  theory. 

As  the  Renaissance  spread  beyond  Italy 
it  took  on  different  aspects  and  tended  to 
abandon  the  purely  artistic  form  of  its  ori- 
ginal home.  Italian  learning  was  pretty, 
and  the  ways  of  the  cultured  Italians 
were  most  delightful,  when  not  too  scan- 
dalous. In  France  it  took  the  form 
of  literary  exuberance,  not  necessarily 
of  classical  inspiration,  and  the  building 
of  those  Renaissance  chateaux^  not  castles 
in  the  mediaeval  sense,  which  still  give  a 
characteristic  charm  to  much  of  Northern 
and  Central  France  and  above  all  to  the 

20 


SOCIEir  IN  EARLT  SIXTEENTH  CENWRY 

Loire  country.  Still,  the  motif  was  very 
Italian  ;  the  Court  was  italianate,  though 
not  to  the  extent  which  it  reached  after 
Erasmus's  death.  In  the  North,  on  the 
contrary,  in  the  Empire — it  is  best  to  avoid 
the  perfectly  correct  words  Germany  and 
Austria^  for  they  have  come  to  have  a 
peculiar  meaning  to  us  since  1866 — the 
Renaissance  took  literally  the  form  of  the 
revival  of  learning,  albeit  there  existed 
an  excellent  Flemish,  Dutch,  and  Niirn- 
berg  school  of  art.  This  scholarship  was 
laborious  ;  it  collated  and  purged  the 
texts  of  the  classical  authors  or  of  the 
early  Fathers  ;  later,  it  took  to  Biblical 
criticism,  and  finally  opened  the  flood-gates 
of  the  Reformation  and  was  indirectly 
responsible  for  that  great  disaster  to  the 
human  race.  The  Renaissance,  as  ex- 
pounded in  Italy  and  France,  would  not 
have  led  to  that  catastrophe,  and  we 
shall  see  that  it  was  never  the  intention 
of  scholars  like  Erasmus,  still  less  of 
Colet,  Warham,  or  More,  that  it  should 
do  so.  This  *'  high  scholarship  *'  never 
wrote  in  anything  but  Latin,  though  Eras- 
mus did  so  far  relax  as  to  write  to  the 

21 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

Elector  of  Saxony,  Luther's  friend,  in 
German,  It  could  be  extremely  dry  and 
bitter  in  spirit,  and  even  at  its  best  was 
inclined  to  pedantry.  It  was  not  so 
human  as  in  the  southern  forms  of  the 
Renaissance,  though  intensely  humanistic. 
The  Germans  or  Dutchmen  lacked  the 
ingenia  acerrlma  Florentina^  or  the  whole- 
hearted zest  in  life  which  characterized 
the  sixteenth-century  Frenchman.  The 
Frenchman  of  the  splendid  Valois  days  and 
for  long  after  was  a  very  different  person 
from  the  Frenchman  of  the  third  Republic, 
Not  all  northern  scholars  were  pedantic  ; 
there  were  many  exceptions  ;  our  own 
Colet,  our  subject  Erasmus,  and  I  think 
we  may  add  Melanchthon,  the  only  sym- 
pathetic character  amongst  the  Refor- 
mers, were  all  delightfully  human. 

Such  was  the  curious,  complex  yet  imma- 
ture society  of  which  Erasmus  was  destined 
for  long  to  be  the  arbiter,  courted  by  all 
from  the  Pope  and  Emperor  downwards. 
Many  of  the  distinguished  friends  of  his 
zenith  turned  against  him,  for  several  of 
them  subsequently  joined  the  Wittenberg 
camp,  and  Erasmus  never  wavered  in  his 

32 


SOCIEir  IN  EARLY  SIXTEENTH  CENJURT 

Catholicism.  Many  who  attached  them- 
selves over-rigidly  to  the  past  forsook  him, 
for  Erasmus  would  never  be  partisan  of  a 
blind  obscurantism.  He  was  alive  to  the 
undoubted  abuses  of  the  time,  and  was 
troubled  by  them  to  some  extent :  it  is  a 
tragedy  that  he  was  unable  to  see  the  end 
of  the  Council  of  Trent,  for  the  decrees  of 
that  Council  aimed  at  the  reformation  of 
every  one  of  the  real  abuses  of  which  the 
earlier  reformers  had  complained.  How- 
ever, the  reformation  movement  fell 
entirely  out  of  the  control  of  those  who 
would  have  helped  the  Pope  to  salutary 
reforms  which,  indeed,  came,  but  too  late 
to  save  the  unity  of  Europe,  and  by  some 
disastrous  agency  fell  into  the  power  of 
such  as  Luther,  Calvin,  Knox,  Thomas 
Cromwell,  and  Henry  VHI. 

The  sixteenth  century  was  a  time  of 
violent  emotions  ;  people  wore  their  hearts 
on  their  sleeves,  and  expressed  them- 
selves habitually  in  superlatives.  It  was  a 
time  of  extreme  intellectualism  ;  an  intel- 
lectualism  which  was  not  incompatible 
with  gross  superstition — I  mean  the  belief 
in    astrology    and    magic.      It   was   very 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDJM 

pagan  ;    men  of  letters  were  so  saturated 
with  classical  learning  that  in  some  curious 
way  they  seemed  to  be  living  in  the  days 
of  the  Empire  before  Our  Lord,  and  the 
more    austere    even    in    the    days   of  the 
Republic.     How  much  of  this  was  a  pure 
mannerism  it  is  hard  to  say.     Luigi  da 
Porto  seems  haunted  by  a  series  of  portents 
in   the  vicissitudes  of   Venetian  history, 
which  he  described  in  his  admirable  letters, 
and   by   a  semi-personal  Fortuna  arbitra 
delle    cose    umane.     He    probably    meant 
little  by  it,  but  regarded  it  as  necessary 
for  a  man  of  culture,  or  at  any  rate  as  a 
sign  of  being  in  good  society,  to  imitate 
Livy,  whom  he  had  obviously  chosen  as 
his  literary  model.    In  fact,  these  men  were 
convinced   that  the  centuries  which  fol- 
lowed the  break-up  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
which  we  usually  call  the  Middle  Ages, 
were   a  time    of   unmitigated    ignorance 
and    gloom,   and    deserved    nothing    but 
oblivion.     We  know  how  mistaken  that 
view  is,  but  Mr.   Chesterton  says  some- 
where that  a  ''  discovery  is  an  incurable 
disease,"  and  all  discoveries,  whether  the 
revival  of  letters  of  four  hundred  years  ago 


SOCIETr  IN  EARLY  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY 

or  the  discoveries  of  science  of  our  own 
time,  have  in  turn  left  the  world  blind  and 
deaf  to  other  and  more  important  matters. 
The  present  day  is  equally  pagan  and 
materialistic  with  the  sixteenth  century, 
with  its  grossness  and  cruelty,  and  with 
much  hypocrisy  thrown  in  ;  it  wholly  lacks 
its  charm  and  brilliancy,  and  is  equally  at 
the  mercy  of  absurd  superstitions.  Does 
not  Goethe  say,  "  Where  no  God  is  there 
spectres  reign  '*  ?  We  are  very  near  the 
sixteenth  century  in  some  ways  and  far 
removed  from  its  thoughts  in  others.  If 
we  could  converse  with  an  educated  man 
of  that  time  we  should  meet  on  fairly 
common  ground,  whereas  we  should  find 
diifficulty  in  understanding  the  mental  out- 
look of  a  man  of  the  twelfth  century. 
The  reason  is  that  the  great  political  and 
even  economic  problems  of  our  day  date 
from  the  Renaissance  time :  modern 
individualism  and  nationalism  are  defin- 
itely opposed  to  the  more  corporate 
life  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Our  modern 
troubles  and  problems  and  manner  of 
thought  would  be  wholly  unintelligible 
to  a  person  of  the  centuries  before  the 

*5 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

fifteenth  and  sixteenth,  for  the  reason  that 
he  would  know  nothing  of  the  Renaissance 
or  Reformation,  and  the  whole  of  modern 
Europe  would  appear  to  him  to  be  a  hope- 
less nightmare.  He  could  not  even  be 
got  to  understand  the  events  of  the  six- 
teenth century  simply  as  historical  facts, 
and  so  far  as  he  could  be  made  to  com- 
prehend the  vast  change  which  was  then 
made  he  would  dislike  it  intensely.  In 
the  matter  of  science  and  inventions  the 
gulf  between  our  own  times  and  the  six- 
teenth century  is  profound,  but  not  very 
much  wider  than  that  which  divides  the 
Europe  of  1920  from  the  Europe  of  1820  ; 
nay,  we  may  take  a  much  shorter  period 
of  time,  for  the  difference  even  between 
1920  and  1895  can  hardly  be  exaggerated. 
There  are  periods  in  history  when  vast 
changes,  are  consummated  in  a  relatively 
short  time,  after  perhaps  centuries  of 
apparent  stability,  and  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury was  pre-eminently  such  a  time.  The 
changes  which  took  place  between  the  two 
first  decades  and  the  three  last  were  fateful 
to  the  human  race,  and  were  kaleido- 
scopic in  nature.     The  mind  is  bewildered 

26 


SOCIEJT  IN  EARir  SIXTEENTH  CENWRT 

in  the  attempt  to  follow  them  :  we  know 
what  ultimately  happened  in  the  different 
countries  ;  but  what  must  have  been  the 
bewilderment  of  mind  of  those  who  lived 
through  them  !  The  change  in  our  own 
times  is  momentous,  but  is  after  all  merely 
one  materialism  against  another  ;  but  the 
upheaval  in  the  sixteenth  century  was 
centred  round  matters  spiritual,  the  very 
heart  of  any  real  existence.  There  were  . 
the  doctrines  and  discipline  of  the  Church, 
unchallenged  seriously  since  the  extirpa- 
tion of  early  heresies,  now  flung  into  the 
melting-pot  and  being  recast  in  the  most 
unfamiliar  and  extravagant  forms.  Peo- 
ple did  not  really  understand  what  was 
taking  place,  and  nothing  seemed  in  the 
least  likely  to  be  permanent. 

This  fact  explains  the  hesitation  and 
apparent  opportunism  of  many  excellent 
people  ;  all  their  ideas  were  in  suspense, 
and  at  the  back  of  their  minds  was  the 
hope,  and  probably  the  belief,  that  in  the 
course  of  a  few  years  Europe  would  return 
to  the  old  paths.  The  Reformation,  which, 
we  must  not  forget,  was  a  phase  of  the 
Renaissance,   resembled   Meno's  torpedo- 

27 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

fish,  and  had  a  numbing  effect  on  those  who 
came  most  into  contact  with  it.  The 
Reformation, as  it  took  place  as  an  historical 
fact,  would  not  have  come  to  pass  without 
the  Renaissance.  There  was  no  necessary 
link  between,  say,  Poliziano  and  Calvin  ; 
but  the  renewed  study  of  Greek  and 
Hebrew  led  insensibly  to  Biblical  criticism, 
and  the  inherent  scepticism  of  the  whole 
Renaissance  spirit  was  ever  ready  to  act 
like  a  powerful  solvent  on  all  hitherto 
accepted  tenets,  whether  of  Church  or 
State.  Unfortunately,  these  emancipated 
minds, rejoicing  in  their  new-found  vigour, 
refused  to  see  any  good  in  the  preceding 
centuries,  and  the  scholastic  philosophy 
^  became  their  special  target.  It  is  true 
p  that  scholasticism,  like  much  else,  was 
degenerate  at  the  time  of  the  breaking 
of  the  storm,  and  unfortunately  until  very 
recently  the  philosophy  of  the  schoolmen 
has  lain  under  a  heavy  cloud  of  ignorance 
and  contempt.  In  this  mental  attitude  even 
the  choicest  spirits,  including  Erasmus 
and  Colet,  were  involved.  Men  usually 
end  by  disliking  what  they  cannot  under- 
stand   or    misconceive.      The    study    of 

28 


SOCIEir  IN  EARLT  SIXTEENTH  CENTURT 

Erasmus  and  the  Renaissance  is  of  such 
high  importance,  not  because  the  new 
world  was  in  any  way  essentially  better  than 
the  old,  but  because,  whether  we  like  it 
or  no,  in  that  century  took  place  the  birth 
of  the  modern,  our  own  period,  Medi- 
aevally  minded  men  exist,  and  have  always 
existed,  who  are  the  most  spiritual  and 
frequently  the  most  delightful  of  mortals, 
and  a  mediaevalist  revival  is  quite  a  prob- 
able occurrence  ;  but  the  inspiration  of 
most  who  are  not  mere  utilitarians  even 
at  the  present  day  is  derived  from  the 
Renaissance.  This  type,  which  has  long 
held  the  field  of  intellect,  has  now  for  years 
past,  at  least  twenty,  been  fighting  a  losing 
battle  against  the  encroachments  of  science 
and  inventions,  in  a  word,  utilitarianism. 
The  influence  of  the  Renaissance  did  not 
make  for  spirituality,  but  it  did  stand  for 
learning  and  beauty  as  ends  in  themselves 
without  the  ulterior  motives  of  helping 
people  to  get  a  living,  to  marry  soon,  to 
amass  wealth,  and  the  various  other  objects 
at  which  education  now  aims.  Education 
ought  to  be  perfectly  useless  in  the  worldly 
or,    more    precisely,    materialistic    sense. 

29 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTJERDJM 

The  pure  intellectiialism  of  the  Renais- 
sance spirit  is  a  far  higher  thing,  but  very 
low  and  unimportant  as  compared  with  the 
spiritual  life.  The  spirit  of  the  Renais- 
sance was  aristocratic,  individualist,  and 
to  some  extent  selfish.  A  certain  amount 
of  money  to  ensure  leisure  for  study  was 
regarded  as  a  necessity  ;  hence  the  begging 
letters  of  scholars  and  their  anxiety  to  find 
a  patron.  After  all,  it  is  a  fact  that  a  really 
cultured  life  cannot  be  attained  by  those 
whose  whole  energies  have  to  be  absorbed 
in  obtaining  the  necessaries  of  life  or  in 
amassing  w^ealth.  People  can,  of  course, 
be  very  rich  and  prosperous  and  yet  be 
wholly  devoid  of  culture — such  is,  indeed, 
their  more  usual  condition  ;  but  still,  a 
person  w^holly  engaged  in  a  struggle  for 
existence  has  a  less  good  chance.  In  other 
words  a  certain  amount  of  money,  enough 
to  guarantee  a  certain  independence  of 
action,  though  not  to  render  hard  work 
unnecessary,  is  the  happiest  condition  for  a 
man  who  desires  to  use  his  intellect. 

The  kind  of  life  and  manner  of  thought 
amongst  the  great  or  eminent  in  the 
sixteenth  century  is  fairly  easy  to  under- 

30 


SOCIEfT  IN  EARLT  SIXTEENTH  CEmVRT 

Stand  from  the  multiplicity  of  letters  and 
memoirs  which  are  extant.  About  the 
mass  of  the  folk  we  really  know  very  little. 
The  idea  of  education,  in  our  sense  of 
giving  a  certain  modicum  of  culture  and 
learning  to  the  whole  population,  did  not 
exist  even  during  that  learned  century. 
Nevertheless,  education — that  is,  a  literary 
training  (nothing  else  could  be  imagined) 
— did  begin  to  have  some  effect  and  to 
mould  the  minds  of  the  younger  townsfolk. 
It  was  not  before  another  three  centuries, 
perhaps  more,  had  elapsed  that  education 
in  any  real  sense  could  be  said  to  have 
permeated  the  country  districts.  We 
must,  therefore,  picture  during  the  second 
and  third  decade  of  the  sixteenth  century 
a  society  composed  of  the  aristocracy  of 
birth  much  affected  by  the  New  Learning, 
and  a  rapidly  rising  plutocracy  of  com- 
merce and  finance  ;  this  also  was  interested 
in  and  patronized  the  things  of  the  mind. 
Below  these  two  existed  a  mass  of  agri- 
cultural folk  and  artisans  and  many 
who  subsequently  came  to  be  known  as 
the  small  middle  classes.  This  table  of 
society  requires  modification  for  different 

31 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

countries.  In  Italy  the  class  distinctions 
were  never  very  deep.  The  aristocracy  of 
intellect  was  there  supreme.  Pico,  of  high 
birth,  would  mix  freely  and  happily  with 
a  Scala  or  a  Pucci. 

Within  the  confines  of  the  Empire  there 
was  a  great  gulf  between  *^  the  high  and 
well  born  "  and  the  burgher  class,  although 
the  leaders  of  finance,  such  as  the  Fug- 
gers,  were  beginning  to  get  a  footing  in 
the  lower  circles  of  the  mighty.  These 
were  frequently  highly  cultured  and  good 
patrons  of  art  and  learning.  Amongst  the 
former  there  was  a  great  diversity  ;  many 
were  still  mere  feudal  men-at-arms,  but 
some  were  deeply  affected  by  the  Renais- 
sance, more  especially  the  South  Germans, 
and  pre-eminent  amongst  them  the  amaz- 
ing Ulrich  von  Hutten.  Outside  the  Free 
and  Imperial  cities  there  was  a  great  dumb 
collection  of  peasants,  inured  to  hardship 
and  tyranny  of  all  kinds,  boorish,  and 
mainly  occupied  with  their  material  needs, 
but  not  without  some  of  the  innate  German 
idealism  and  kindliness.  Throughout 
Germany  there  existed  a  latent  national- 
ism which  was  quick  to  respond  to  Luther's 

52 


SOCIETT  IN  EARLY  SIX'TEENIH  CENJURT 

appeal,  and  a  vast  discontent  which  mani- 
fested itself  in  the  Peasants'  Revolt. 

In  France  the  Renaissance  was  more 
purely  aristocratic  in  spirit  ;  it  basked 
in  the  sunshine  of  the  Court  and  in  the 
chateaux  of  the  great  ;  it  flourished  in 
the  French  universities,  and  was  greatly 
encouraged  and  patronised  by  French 
Churchmen.  These,  let  us  remember, 
were  almost  invariably  members  of  the 
aristocracy.  The  feudal  aristocracy  of 
France  did  not  lose  its  power  until  the  time 
of  Richelieu.  The  country  at  large,  as 
was  natural  for  the  most  conservative  of 
lands,  continued  in  the  old  ways  and  was 
but  little  stirred  by  the  Renaissance  ;  it 
hated  the  Reformation,  when  it  arrived, 
with  a  fierce  and  lasting  hatred.    - 

Society  in  England  was  something  of  an 
amalgam  of  these  three  ;  but  fhe  feudal 
aristocracy  was  unfortunately  far  weaker 
than  it  was  in  France  or  in  the  Empire, 
and  the  new  aristocracy,  invented  by  the 
Tudors,  was  for  the  most  part  of  a  singu- 
larly abject  and  servile  character.  In  the 
Court  and  travelled  circles  foreign  fashions 
were  in  vogue  and  society  was  materialistic 

c  33 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

in  outlook.  The  country,  from  being  one 
of  the  weakest  of  European  Powers,  was 
gradually  realizing  its  potential  strength, 
and  a  spirit  of  capable  and  fierce  insularity 
was  rapidly  developing.  The  mass  of  the 
folk  were  boorish,  conservative,  and  but 
little  interested  in  intellectual  matters  ; 
to  give  them  due  credit,  they  were  very 
little  inclined  to  follow  the  path  of  religious 
innovation.  This  was  imposed  on  them 
from  above. 

Such  was,  quite  generally,  the  condition 
of  Europe  at  the  time  when  the  Renais- 
sance attained  its  full  development,  and 
in  England,  Germany,  and  the  Nether- 
lands was  about  to  emerge  into  the  Re- 
formation. So  much  is  necessary  to 
understand  how  it  came  to  pass  that  the 
Reformation  was  able  to  spread  with  the 
rapidity  of  a  prairie  fire.  The  times  were 
favourable  to  religious  revolution,  even  as 
many  suppose  our  own  days  are  ripe  for 
social  revolution.  A  fastidious  and  some- 
what artificial  culture  with  the  encourage- 
ment of  a  sceptical  spirit,  the  rise  of  a 
sentiment  of  nationality  everywhere,  the 
prevalence  of  abuses   and   corruption   in 

34 


SOCIEfr  IN  EARLT  SIXTEENTH  CENTURT 

many  quarters,  and  the  existence  of  a 
vague  discontent  would  have  rendered 
some  upheaval  of  society  probable.  As 
it  was  the  period  was  too  near  to  the 
Middle  Ages  for  the  revolt  to  take  the 
form  of  anything  but  religious  troubles. 
The  sixteenth  century  was  singularly 
secular  and  irreligious,  but  intensely  theo- 
logical. The  state  of  things  in  Eras- 
mus's time  might  explain,  though  not 
excuse,  the  German  revolt.  Ail  the  mat- 
ters which  troubled  the  early  reformers 
were  rectified,  made  clear,  or  abolished  at 
Trent,  and  there  was  left  no  abuse^  unless 
of  course  anyone  will  maintain,  as  some  no 
doubt  do,  that  Catholicism  is  in  itself  an 
abuse.  People  are  coming  round  to  the 
idea  that  the  Reformation  was  a  phase 
of  thought.  Even  those  who  consider — 
wrongly  we  think — that  the  Reformation 
was  a  necessity  at  the  time,  frequently 
admit  that  it  is  futile  to  continue  to  protest 
against  matters  which  have  long  ceased 
to  have  importance  except  as  facts  of 
history.  It  is  useless  to  go  on  praising 
deaf  gods  for  ever. 


3S 


Chapter  II 


THE  rOUTH  AND  MATVRITT  OF 
ERASMUS 

^^^|/p^RASMUS  was  slight  and 
^  CTT%Mu^ fair,  and  in  his  youth  was 
^delicate  and  pleasing  to 
look  at.  The  pictures 
^'  extant  of  him  in  later  life 
^w  portray  a  rather  emaci- 
>v /^S^\/ I  >A  ated  and  refined  face. 
He  suffered  from  ill  health  all  his  life,  a 
kind  of  acute  indigestion  it  would  seem, 
and  in  considering  some  of  his  writings  and 
the  bitter  spirit  which  he  showed  at  times 
— a  symptom  often  due  to  an  extreme 
sensitiveness — we  must  remember  that 
chronic  ill  health  does  not  improve  the 
temper  of  most  men.  He  went  to  school 
first  at  Gouda  and  then  to  the  choir  school 
of  Utrecht.  *  In  1475  he  was  under  the 
instruction  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Common 
Life  at  Deventer  ;  he  seems  to  have  been 
at  Hertogenbosch  in  1484,  but  little  is 
known  of  his  life  at  that  period.  His 
parents  were  now  both  dead,  and  under 
the  pressure  of  his  guardians,  who  did  not 

36 


rOUTII   AND   MJTURITr   OF   ERASMUS 

fulfil  their  responsibilities  in  a  proper 
manner,  both  he  and  his  brother,  Peter, 
entered  the  Augustinian  priory  of  Steyn 
on  probation.  His  brother  is  of  no 
consequence  to  us  :  he  was  a  weak  and 
sensual  character,  and  although  he  entered 
the  monastic  life  much  more  willingly 
than  Erasmus,  he  abandoned  it  and  died 
discredited.  Erasmus,  on  the  contrary, 
although  he  was  dispensed  from  his  vows 
as  an  Augustinian  canon,  never  did  any- 
thing unbecoming  his  orders.  Erasmus 
was  ordained  priest  by  the  Bishop  of 
Utrecht  and  celebrated  his  first  Mass  in 
1492.  The  manner  in  which  the  brothers, 
and  it  is  to  be  feared  many  immature 
youths,  were  professed  at  that  time  was  an 
undoubted  abuse,  for  they  were  induced 
to  take  orders  by  a  mixture  of  cajolery  and 
threats.  No  one  was  more  shocked  than 
Leo  X  himself  at  the  manner  in  which 
Erasmus's  profession  had  been  made.  It 
was  one  of  Erasmus's  many  services  to  the 
Church  to  make  known  some  of  the  abuses 
connected  with  the  various  orders.  All 
these  abuses,  wholly  contrary  to  the  Canon 
Law  in  any  case,  were  made  impossible  for 

37 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

the  future  at  the  Council  of  Trent. 
Erasmus  was  most  careful  not  to  condemn 
the  religious  as  such  ;  he  merely  stated 
that  he  had  no  vocation,  and  wished,  now 
that  he  was  a  power  in  the  world,  to  protest 
against  a  state  of  things  which  made  his 
profession,  and  that  of  many  others,  not 
only  useless  but  a  source  of  real  spiritual 
danger  to  those  who  undertook  lightly 
vows  which  they  would  very  likely  aban- 
don improperly.  It  is  a  view  which 
would  pass  as  a  commonplace  now  and  for 
very  long  past,  but  is  an  instance  of  the 
spirit  which  seems  to  bring  Erasmus  much 
nearer  to  our  own  times.  Furthermore, 
the  Low  Countries  were  inhabited  by  a 
somewhat  gross  people,  and  it  is  very 
probable  that  Erasmus's  strictures  on  the 
religious  orders  and  houses  were  coloured 
by  the  life  of  his  native  land  ;  he  fre- 
quently refers  to  the  lack  of  culture  and 
learning  in  the  Netherlands  of  his  day. 
So  we  may  be  prepared  to  accept  as  true 
abuses  which  might  be  related  concerning 
the  religious  in  the  Low  Countries  when 
we  should  reject  them  if  reported  else- 
where.   Erasmus's  health  was  totally  unable 

38 


rOUi:H   AND   MJTURIir   OF   ER/ISMUS 

to  Stand  the  life  of  the  priory,  and  the  lack 
of  culture  of  some  of  the  canons  displeased 
him,  so  the  prior,  who  realized  the  extra- 
ordinary talent  of  the  youth — for  Erasmus 
had  ample  leisure  to  study  in  the  library  of 
Steyn,  whatever  may  otherwise  have  been 
its  drawbacks — arranged  with  Henry  of 
Bergen,  Bishop  of  Cambrai,  to  accept 
Erasmus  as  his  secretary.  The  dispensa- 
tion to  abandon  the  monastic  life  was 
easily  obtained  from  the  Vatican.  The 
bishop  himself  was  a  secular,  and  in  any 
case  had  no  jurisdiction  over  the  orders, 
so,  besides  performing  a  kind  act,  he  may 
have  taken  some  human  pleasure  in  with- 
drawing Erasmus  from  the  control  of  men 
who  were  outside  his  authority.  These 
early  years  of  Erasmus's  life  are  not  really 
important  except  so  far  as  they  gave  a 
bias  to  the  whole  of  his  subsequent  life. 
There  are  many  gaps  in  the  earlier  his- 
tory of  Erasmus's  life.  We  do  not  know 
at  what  age  he  left  Steyn,  nor  for  how  long 
he  was  in  the  bishop's  service,  but  soon 
enough  he  found  the  conditions  irksome. 
Erasmus  was  not  too  grateful  for  the  kind- 
ness  of   Henry  of   Bergen.     Very  likely 

39 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

the  bishop  was  rather  tiresome  to  so 
mercurial  a  nature  ;  but  our  scholar,  like 
everyone  else,  had  many  faults.  He  was 
opposed  to  restraint  of  all  kinds  and  was 
distinctly  exacting,  and  at  times  ungrateful. 
At  any  rate,  the  bishop  agreed  to  his  going 
to  study  at  the  University  of  Paris,  His 
doings  there  seem  to  have  been  no  more 
than  the  tricks  of  all  undergraduates, 
yet  not  wholly  suitable  to  a  priest,  and 
the  Bishop  of  Cambrai  took  alarm  at 
what  he  had  heard.  Erasmus  was  not 
immaculate,  but  he  was  never  anything 
approaching  to  being  vicious,  and  never 
did  anything  really  base  ;  as  a  priest  he 
ought  to  have  avoided  the  society  of 
women,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  they  do  not 
seem  to  have  had  any  attraction  for  him  ex- 
cept perhaps  in  his  young  days  during  his 
first  visit  to  England.  Servatius  Rogerus 
of  the  Augustinians,  and  ultimately 
Prior  of  Steyn,  was  the  person  on  whom 
he  lavished  his  affection — a  clear  proof 
that  his  time  at  the  priory  was  not  wholly 
miserable.  Anne  Bersala  of  Tournehem 
had  an  attraction  for  him,  but  simply  as  a 
patron    of  scholars    and    learning   whose 

40 


rOUJH  AND  AUTURIir  OF  ERASMUS 

financial  help  the  impecunious  and  lavish 
Erasmus  found  extremely  useful.  In  Paris 
he  prospered  and  his  lecture-room  was  well 
attended,  and  here  he  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  William  Blount,  Lord  Mountjoy's 
eldest  son,  memorable  as  the  occasion  of 
his  introduction  to  England,  and  Grey,^ 
son  of  the  Marquis  of  Dorset.  It  is  re- 
markable that  his  pupils  almost  invariably 
grew  to  be  his  friends.  Erasmus  had  a 
strong  capacity  for  arousing  and  bestowing 
affection  ;  he  had  also  a  knack  of  arousing 
animosity  ;  the  two  are  by  no  means  so 
incompatible  as  they  seem.  In  Paris  after 
a  time  Erasmus  fell  into  the  depression  to 
which  he  was  always  subject,  and  Mount- 
joy  thereupon  invited  him  to  try  his 
fortunes  in  England  and  return  with 
himself  to  London.  One  of  the  more 
prevalent  delusions  is  the  idea  that  foreign 
travel  is  a  very  modern  idea.  It  is  true 
that  our  grandfathers  were  essentially 
sedentary  and  untravelled  ;  that  was  in  part 
the  effect  of   the  Napoleonic  wars  ;    but 

^  But  it  would  seem  that  this  Grey  was  illegitimate,  as  he 
cannot  be  identified.  He  was  under  the  care  of  a  sort  of 
English  agent  in  Paris,  who  did  not  wholly  approve  of 
Erasmus.    Grey  was  with  Erasmus  at  Basel  in  1525. 

41 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

at  Erasmus's  time  and  even  through 
the  Middle  Ages,  people  got  about  with 
surprising  speed  and  comparative  ease. 
Latin  was  the  recognized  tongue,  so  the 
trouble  of  foreign  languages  hardly  arose, 
at  any  rate,  in  the  intercourse  of  the 
cultured  ;  and  the  ordinary  folk  did  not 
travel. 

The  Catholic  Church,  as  yet  unassailed, 
was  the  common  home  of  every  person  of 
every  nationality  ;  for  practical  purposes 
we  may  at  this  period  ignore  Russia  and 
the  Near  East.  One  of  the  more  disas- 
trous results  of  the  Reformation  was  the 
destruction  of  the  spirit  of  Catholicity  in 
a  racial  apart  from  the  theological  sense, 
and  the  settling  up  of  the  personified  State, 
the  ideal  of  nationalism,  and,  in  the  case  of 
England,  the  creation  of  a  spirit  of  self- 
satisfaction  and  insularity.  Mr.  Chester- 
ton well  says  that  it  is  a  "  great  downfall 
from  being  a  Christian  nation  to  becoming 
a  chosen  people.'*  The  English,  forced  by 
nature  to  be  islanders,  must  ever  have  been 
less  cosmopolitan  than  the  other  Catholics 
of  Europe  ;  but  the  insularity  which  we 
know  too  well  and  from  which  the  choicer 

4a 


rOUTII  AND  MJIURIir  OF  ERASMUS 

spirits  are  indeed  free  is  the  product  of 
the  Reformation.  'Now  Erasmus  was 
nothing  if  not  a  cosmopolitan.  Legally, 
he  was  of  course  a  subject  of  the  Emperor. 
The  dates  of  Erasmus's  movements, 
which  can  only  be  determined  from  his 
letters,  the  earlier  of  which  are  singularly 
inaccurate,  though  Mr.  Allen  has  reduced 
to  order  the  hitherto  prevailing  chaos,  are 
uncertain.  Erasmus  probably  did  not 
trouble  to  be  accurate,  because  he  could 
not  in  his  early  days  foresee  the  eagerness 
with  which  his  ordinary  correspondence 
would  be  studied  three  hundred  and  fifty 
years  later.  He  was  in  London  quite 
at  the  close  of  the  century.  Here  he  made 
the  acquaintance  of  Sir  Thomas  More, 
Colet,  Warham,  not  yet  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  and  Grocyn,  who  was  heading 
a  forlorn  attempt  to  teach  Greek  at  Oxford 
without  any  grammars.  It  was  probably 
because  of  this  lack  of  facilities  for  the 
study  of  Greek  that  he  chose  to  decline 
Colet's  invitation  to  Oxford.  His  visit 
to  that  university  was  considerably  later. 
Erasmus  may  have  learned  the  rudiments 
of  Greek  in  his  school  days  ;  anyhow,  at 

43 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

Louvain,  in  1502,  he  was  fluent  in  the 
language,  and  in  England  during  the 
Cambridge  period  (i  505-6)  he  was  master 
of  it  for  all  purposes.  His  friendship  with 
these  men,  and  especially  with  the  two  first, 
was  lifelong. 

Erasmus  described  the  extraordinary 
charm  of  More,  and  he  probably  loved  him 
better  than  any  other  person.  The  friend- 
ship of  Blessed  Thomas  More  is  in  itself  a 
guarantee  of  the  worth  of  Erasmus.  His 
desire,  however,  was  now  set  on  Italy,  and 
he  left  England  in  1499,  when  occurred 
the  well-known  episode  of  the  seizure  of  all 
or  nearly  all  his  money  at  Dover,  because 
the  export  of  specie  was  forbidden  by  an 
old  statute  of  Edward  HI  and  apparently 
reinforced  by  one  of  the  actual  reign 
(Henry  VH).  More  misled  Erasmus 
unintentionally  by  telling  him  that  the 
embargo  did  not  extend  to  foreign  coin  ; 
Erasmus's  money  seems  to  have  been 
French.  This  made  a  bad  impression 
on  Erasmus,  though  the  volume  of  the 
Adagia  almost  immediately  appeared. 
This  is  a  collection  of  thoughts,  quotations, 
epigrams  and  reflections.     This  form  of 

44 


rOUJH  AND  MAWRHT  OF  ERASMUS 

light  literature  was  practically  unknown 
in  those  days. 

It  served  Erasmus  well  and  pleased  all 
his  English  friends,  and  from  its  appearance 
dates  the  patronage  of  Warham.  The 
prelate  for  the  first  time  realized  the  su- 
preme genius  of  the  young  Dutchman. 
The  Adagta  was  well  timed,  for  something 
now  was  expected  of  Erasmus,  and  an 
attack  on  England,  to  which  doubtless  he 
felt  inclined  and  could  certainly  have 
written  in  a  telling  manner,  would  not 
have  helped  him  with  his  English  friends. 
All  the  same,  the  virtual  robbery  at  Dover 
did  rankle,  and  he  never  again  thought 
so  well  of  England.  Erasmus  was  not  a 
mere  scholar,  though  he  worked  extraordi- 
narily hard.  He  mixed  with  men  and 
women  of  all  sorts  and  of  all  stations  in  life 
in  most  countries,  continually  studying 
human  nature  in  all  its  aspects.  This 
was,  in  fact,  his  real  interest,  and  it  is 
this  humanity  which  gives  their  charm  to 
so  many  of  his  letters.  He  never  seems 
to  have  been  troubled  by  abstract  questions 
as  to  human  destiny  and  the  mystery  of 
human  life,  its  reason  and  purpose,  and  at 

45 


ERJSMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

times  its  apparent  purposelessness.  ^'  I 
am  alive,  and  my  faculties  are  trustworthy,'* 
was  never  said  by  Erasmus  ;  but  he  would 
have  appreciated  its  philosophy.  No  doubt 
these  questions  trouble  the  minds  of  many 
who  spiritually  are  greatly  Erasmus's 
superiors  ;  but  very  often  they  are  but 
the  imagination  of  a  shallow  and  undis- 
ciplined intellect,  of  those  who  will  not 
or  possibly  cannot  exercise  their  wills.  A 
very  hard  life  was  not  possible  to  Erasmus, 
and  certain  comforts,  or  rather  refinements, 
of  living  were  to  him  a  necessity  ;  his 
material  wants  were  small,  but  fastidious. 
With  the  idea  of  an  Italian  voyage  in  his 
head,  he  set  to  work  to  find  the  means  for 
realizing  it,  and  we  could  wish  that  he  had 
adopted  other  methods. 

He  applied  to  his  old  friend  the  bishop 
and  to  his  brother,  the  Abbot  of  St.  Bertin  ; 
but,  in  spite  of  his  flattery,  not  to  much 
avail.  It  is  most  difficult  to  re-establish 
relations  with  one  who  has  once  been  kind 
and  who,  rightly  or  wrongly,  has  become 
subsequently  estranged.  That  is  one  of 
the  tragedies  of  life,  and  as  time  rolled  on 
Erasmus  frequently  experienced   it.     By 

46 


rOUTII  AND  MATURIir  OF  ERASMUS 

no  means  was  it  always  his  fault,  but  very 
frequently  it  was  the  result  of  refusing  to 
follow  those  whom  he  liked  into  dangerous 
paths.  Erasmus's  conceit  in  his  letters  to 
the  lady  of  Tournehem  and  to  James  Batt, 
in  which  he  states  that  the  like  of  himself 
only  appears  once  in  centuries,  and  that  he 
is  composing  works  that  will  live  for  ever, 
is  unpleasant  ;  but  it  was  the  fashion  of 
the  learned  world  of  that  time  to  speak  in 
superlatives.  The  same  claim  has  been 
made,  and  justified,  by  Horace  and  Shake- 
speare. Further  adulation  of  Anne  Ber- 
sala  produced  the  desired  result,  but  the 
Bishop  of  Cambrai  remained  obdurate, 
for  w^hich  we  must  rather  admire  him. 
It  is  strange  that  Erasmus  would  not 
accept  ecclesiastical  patronage,  which  could 
easily  have  been  obtained  ;  it  was  the 
ordinary  method  of  rewarding  scholar- 
ship, and  the  Churchmen,  from  the  Pope 
downwards,  w^ere  splendid  patrons  of  the 
arts  and  letters  ;  but  Erasmus  would  not 
sacrifice  his  independence  of  thought  and 
originality  of  method.  He  always  had 
certain  principles  ! 

For  some  reason  Erasmus  did  not  set 
47 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

out  at  once  for  Italy,  for  we  find  him  again 
in  England  at  Lambeth,  1502,  and  it  was 
not  before  1504  that  he  went  to  Bologna 
and  was  introduced  to  Julius  II.  This 
great  Pope  was  full  of  his  projects  for  the 
expulsion  of  the  French  and  the  curtail- 
ment of  the  power  of  Venice,  in  both  of 
which  he  was  successful.  But  Erasmus 
was  a  life-long  pacificist  ;  he  heartily- 
disliked  all  wars,  in  which  he  was  greatly 
in  advance  of  his  day,  and  he  spoiled 
his  chances  with  Julius  by  not  writing 
in  his  best  style  on  the  aims  and  objects 
of  the  Pontiff.  Julius  II  has  been  much 
maligned  over  his  French  wars  by  Eras- 
mus— if  indeed  he  wrote  the  Julius 
Exclusus^  which  we  must  consider  in  due 
course.  To  turn  the  French  out  of  Italy 
was  a  laudable  act,  quite  as  much  so  as  the 
expulsion  of  the  English  from  France  about 
seventy  years  earlier.  In  Rome  Erasmus 
had  the  best  of  receptions,  and  made  the 
permanent  friendship  of  the  Cardinal  of 
San  Giorgio  and  won  the  regard  of  the 
future  Leo  X.  He  left  Rome  and  returned 
to  Paris,  and  thence  made  his  third  visit 
to  England,  when  he  stayed  some  time  at 

48 


rOUm  AND  MAIURHT  OF  ERASMUS 

Cambridge  (i  505--6).  He  may  have  been 
attracted  by  the  new  foundation  of  the 
Lady  Margaret's  college  of  Corpus  Christi, 
and  some  have  even  seen  his  humanistic 
influence  in  the  statutes  drawn  up  for  that 
college  by  the  future  martyr,  Bishop 
Fisher.  However  that  may  be,  Erasmus 
applied  for  admission  to  the  doctorate 
of  divinity.  He  stayed  some  time  in 
Cambridge  and  lectured  there  ;  the  clim- 
ate and  living  he  found  most  trying,  for 
Erasmus,  though  of  a  hardy  northern  race, 
was  in  tastes  and  habits  purely  southern. 
He  had  not  yet  attained  to  any  fame  in 
England,  and  a  lecturer  at  a  university 
was  not  nearly  so  important  a  person  as  a 
lecturer  and  tutor  of  the  present  day. 
Rome  again  attracted  him,  and  he  would 
probably  have  settled  there  for  good  with 
the  patronage  of  San  Giorgio  but  for  events 
which  took  place  in  England.  It  seems 
strange  that  anyone  so  cultured  and  so 
fond  of  learned  ease  as  Erasmus  should 
have  been  attracted  to  England  at  all.  A 
southern  land  suited  him  far  better — not 
that  Rome  was  a  sanatorium  in  those  days. 
To  remain  in  Rome,  the  centre  of  learning, 
t>  49 


ERJSMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

and  where  the  patronage  of  Popes  such 
as    Julius    II    or    Leo    X    was    magnifi- 
cent, apparently  had  every  advantage  over 
our    island  ;    we    can    only  suppose  that 
Erasmus  could  not  make  up  his  mind  to 
sacrifice  his  independence,  which  would 
have  been   necessary   if  he  were  to  rely 
entirely  on   the   patronage  of  the   Papal 
Court,     In  any  case  two  letters  came,  one 
from  his  old  friend  William  Blount,  nov/ 
Lord  Mountjoy,  to  announce  the  accession 
of  Henry  VIII,  and  another,  an  enclosure 
from   the    young   monarch   himself,  both 
of  them  expressed  in  the  most  friendly  and 
even   flattering  language.     Erasmus,   not 
without   cause,   hastened   to   the   English 
Court.     The  hope  and  its  fulfilment  turned 
out  in  fact  to   be  widely   different,   and 
Erasmus  was  bitterly  disappointed  at  the 
result.     This    was    not    altogether    mere 
fickleness  on  his  royal  and  noble  friends' 
part.     The  form  of  the  invitation  makes 
us   suppose    that    some    very    high    post, 
possibly  one  on  the  Council,  was  intended 
for  Erasmus  ;  for  he  was  now  well  known, 
a  friend  of  Cardinals,  and  with  an  assured 
position  at  Rome  as  the  editor  of  a  fresh 

50 


rOUJIl   AND   MJTURIir   OF  ERASMUS 

translation  of  the  New  Testament,  if  he 
cared  to  remain.  The  failure  of  Henry^s 
promises  was  due  mainly  to  his  preoccupa- 
tions in  the  political  world.  The  adminis- 
tration required  reform,  Ireland  was  very 
uneasy,  and  a  war  with  France  was 
imminent.  The  protection  of  Erasmus, 
therefore,  passed  into  Warham's  hands,  to 
be  continued  by  Cranmer.  The  only 
obvious  way  of  providing  for  a  scholar  then 
was  to  give  him  a  benefice  ;  accordingly, 
it  came  to  pass  that  Erasmus  for  a  short 
time  figured  amongst  the  English  parochial 
clergy,  as  rector  of  Aldington,  Kent. 
The  living  was  a  valuable  one,  but  Erasmus 
held  it  (15 1 2)  only  for  a  short  time,  and 
there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  he  ever 
resided  there.  When  he  resigned  War- 
ham  allowed  him  a  yearly  pension  of  ^20  ; 
but  the  archbishop  expressly  stated  that  the 
granting  of  pensions  was  not  his  habit, 
nor  were  they  suitable,  except  in  such 
exceptional  circumstances  as  in  the  case 
of   Erasmus.^     Erasmuses   disappointment 

*  "Viri  in  Uteris  et  Latinis  et  Graecis  consummatissimi, 
qui  tempora  nostra  sua  doctrina  ac  facundia  velut  sydus 
illustrant  et  singularis  Erasmus  qui,  spreta  Italia,  Gallia  et 
Germania    quibus   in    regionibus   licuit   illi    satis   opulente 

SI 


ERASMUS    OF  ROTTERDAM 

is  clearly  shown  in  a  letter  to  Cardinal 
Grimani, 

"  I  was  promised  much  gold,  and  although 
I  am  careless  of  money,  I  expected  a  stream 
fuller  of  it  than  Pactolus  itself.  I  do  regret 
leaving  Rome.  Rome  is  the  centre  of  the 
world.  In  Rome  is  liberty.  In  Rom.e  are 
splendid  libraries.  In  Rome  we  meet  and 
converse  with  men  of  learning  ;  there  are  the 
ancient  monuments,  and  on  Rome  the  eyes  of 
the  world  are  fastened  ;  there  are  the  Cardinals 
who  were  so  kind  to  me,  not  least  of  them  your- 
self." 

These  were  true  words.  He  found  no 
fault  with  the  young  King,  whom  he 
admitted  was  kindness  itself,  still  less  with 
Warham's  generosity,  but  rather  blamed 
the  war  as  the  cause  of  his  ill  luck.     We 

vitam  agere,  hue  (i.e.  in  Angliam)  se  conferre  maluit  ut  hie 
cum  amicis  quod  reliquum  est  vitae  traduceret."' 

There  are  men  extremely  able  in  Latin  and  Greek  letters 
who  illuminate  our  times  with  their  learning  and  eloquence, 
and  above  all  Erasmus,  who,  rejecting  Italy,  France  and  the 
Empire,  lands  in  which  he  could  have  lived  most  comfort- 
ably, preferred  to  come  hither  (i.e.  England),  and  here, 
amongst  his  friends,  to  spend  the  rest  of  his  life. 

This  is  a  figure  of  speech,  for  Erasmus  at  this  date  was  not 
old,  and  he  lived  for  years  after. 

Erasmus  was  without  any  knowledge  of  the  English 
language. 

52 


rOUTH  AND  AUTURIir  OF  ERASMUS 

must  remember  that  Henry  in  his  youth 
was  attractive,  very  different  from  the  lust- 
ful and  blood-stained  monster  of  his  later 
years.  Erasmus  had  strong  prejudices  and 
was  no  philosopher,  and  the  annoyance 
caused  him  by  the  war  accentuated  his 
ingrained  pacificism.  He  had  abundant 
leisure,  if  nothing  else,  and  travelled  about 
the  country.  He  made  the  pilgrimage  to 
Walsingham  in  the  company,  probably,  of 
the  Eton  boy  Aldrich,  and  to  Canterbury 
with  Gratianus  Pullus  (Colet). 

The  Peregrinatio  Religionis  was  not 
written  before  1524  ;  but  the  pilgrimage 
to  St.  Thomas  must  have  taken  place  before 
1 519,  the  year  of  Colet's  death,  and  that  to 
Our  Lady  of  Walsingham  about  the  same 
time.  The  original  form  was  watered 
down  and  the  apology  for  rash  vows  is 
nearly  as  long.  Erasmus  was  becoming 
more  conservative.  The  words  put  into 
the  mouth  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  are  of  the 
highest  wisdom.  Downright  unbecoming 
requests  to  her  and  to  the  saints  were 
apparently  often  made  and  endless  foolish 
ones.  The  latter  we  can  easily  believe, 
incredible   as   the    former    seem    to   our 

S3 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

minds  ;  but  the  age  was  ignorant — that  is, 
the  bulk  of  the  folk — and  superstitious. 
The  whole  Peregrinatio  is  a  curious  work, 
at  times  flippant  and  at  times  excellent, 
as  in  the  answer  of  Ogygius,  the  believing 
pilgrim,  to  Mercedemus,  the  sceptic,  who 
enquires  how  the  Blessed  Virgin  most 
delights  to  be  honoured,  that  the  most 
acceptable  service  is  to  imitate  her.  We 
must  bear  in  mind  that  the  familiarity  with 
which  the  men  of  the  Renaissance  treated 
holy  things,  though  unpleasant  to  our- 
selves, was  not  necessarily  at  all  irreverent. 
Erasmus's  essential  orthodoxy  is  trium- 
phantly vindicated  by  his  Greek  votive 
verses  to  Our  Lady  which  he  put  up  at 
the  Walsingham  shrine,  and  which,  in  a 
delightful  spirit  of  mischief,  he  certainly 
wrote  in  Greek  for  the  mystification  of  the 
clergy  of  the  shrine. 

Hail,  Jesu's  Mother,  blessed  evermore, 
Alone  of  women  God  bearing  and  Virgin, 
Others  may  offer  to  Thee  various  gifts. 
This  man  his  gold,  that  man  silver, 
A  third  adorn  Thy  shrine  with  precious  stones : 
For  which  some  ask  a  guerdon  of  good  health, 
Some  riches ;  others  hope  that  by  Thy  aid 
They  soon  may  bear  a  father's  honoured  name. 
Or  gain  the  years  of  Pylus'  revered  sage. 

54 


rOU7H  AND  MAWRHT  OF  ERASMUS 

But  the  poor  scholar,  for  his  well-meant  song, 
Bringing  these  verses  only,  all  lie  has, 
Asks  in  reward  for  his  most  humble  gift 
That  greatest  blessing,  piety  of  heart. 
And  free  remission  of  his  many  sins. 

The  Vow  of  Erastnus. 

We  need  add  nothing  to  it. 

After  the  pilgrimage  Erasmus  stayed 
with  More  at  Chelsea. 

His  word  portraits  of  these  two.  More 
and  Colet,  are  remarkable,  but  so  extremely 
familiar  to  all  that  we  must  not  enlarge 
upon  them.  That  portrait  of  Blessed 
Thomas  More  is  of  special  interest  in  that 
it  was  painted  for  Ulrich  von  Hutten. 
Their  quarrel  was  of  a  much  later  date. 
The  Epistolae  Obsciirorwn  Vtrorum  had 
appeared  and,  strange  as  it  may  seem. 
More  was  quite  delighted  at  this  viru- 
lent caricature  of  the  monks.  We  should 
reflect  that  these  early  skits  did  not  in 
themselves  attack  the  doctrines  of  the 
Church,  to  attacks  on  which,  however, 
they  doubtless  led  the  way.  We  know  the 
subsequent  events  ;  so  that  we  forget  that 
those  who  had  lived  in  the  Church,  and, 
since  the  conversion  of  the  English,  without 
the  bare  possibility  of  a  breaking  from  it 

IS 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

ever  occurring  to  them,  could  not  have 
had  the  faintest  idea  of  what  was  coming 
within  a  few  years.  Erasmus,  on  the 
contrary,  to  whom  the  authorship  was 
maliciously  assigned,  was  disgusted  at  its 
indecency  and  said  that  he  did  not 
take  the  slightest  interest  in  it.  Yet  there 
can  be  no  doubt  as  to  More's  essentially 
religious  nature  and  his  great  spiritual 
superiority  to   Erasmus. 

Erasmus's  expenses  in  printing  his  St. 
Jerome  and  for  his  work  on  the  New 
Testament  were  heavy,  and  the  promised 
money  was  not  forthcoming,  not  at  least 
in  the  quantity  for  which  he  had  hoped. 
We  soon  find  him  again  at  Cambridge, 
whither  perhaps  Blessed  John  Fisher,  now 
Chancellor  of  the  University,  had  invited 
him.  His  letters  from  Cambridge  give  us 
a  good  idea  of  how  he  passed  the  time  and 
what  he  thought.  He  evidently  did  not 
not  care  much  for  it,  and  had  no  intention 
of  staying  there.  His  health  was  bad, 
partly  owing  to  the  poor  quality  of  the 
wine — he  could  not  drink  beer,  as  he 
complained  to  his  friend  Ammonius,  a 
Papal  Agent  in  England,  and  to  Warham. 

56 


rOU7H  AND  MAJURHT  OF  ERASMUS 

The  plague  broke  out  and  emptied  the 
university.  Most  curiously  we  get  no 
account  of  the  famous  men  whose  acquaint- 
ance he  must  have  made.  To  a  man  of  his 
temperament  a  residence  in  Cambridge 
must  have  been  depressing  ;  he  was  a 
Dutchman  only  by  accident  of  birth,  and 
he  longed  more  and  more  for  the  Italian 
sunniness  of  life  and  manners.  In  the 
sixteenth  century  the  climate  of  Cam- 
bridge, in  the  winter  months,  must  have 
been  most  unattractive. 

Now  came  the  period  of  Erasmus's  glory, 
with  the  appearance  of  the  Greek  New 
Testament  with  a  new  Latin  translation  and 
a  preface  to  each  Gospel  and  Epistle.  This 
was  carried  out  with  the  direct  approval 
and  help  of  Leo  X  himself.  The  book  did 
not  indeed  appear  until  after  Erasmus's 
departure  from  England,  but  it  belongs 
to  this  period  of  his  life.  Efforts  were 
made  on  the  part  of  many  of  his  English 
friends  to  detain  him,  sincere  doubtless 
on  the  part  of  the  Bishop  of  Rochester  and 
of  Warham,  insincere  on  the  part  of  Wol- 
sey,  who  never  was  attracted  by  Erasmus. 
Even  the  King  seemed  anxious  to  retain 

57 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

in  his  realm  the  most  distinguished  scholar 
of  the  day  ;  but  Erasmus  was  resolved 
to  depart.  He  was  destined  never  again 
to  see  England,  although  in  later  life,  as  we 
shall  see,  he  made  a  determined  effort  to 
return.  Before  leaving  he  passed  a  fort- 
night with  Fisher  at  Rochester  and  thither 
also  went  Sir  Thomas  More.  For  pos- 
terity, the  most  important  result  of  this 
meeting  was  the  production  of  the  Encom- 
ium Mortae  which  has  a  play  on  the  name. 
More,  besides  its  literal  meaning,  the 
Praise  of  Folly.  This  was  the  last  meeting 
of  the  three  devoted  friends :  none  but 
the  sunniest  worldly  prospects  could  then 
be  foreseen  for  the  eminent  statesman, 
the  eminent  churchman,  and  the  famous 
scholar.  Dts  aliter  visum.  Two  were  to 
gain  the  crown  of  martyrdom,  the  other's 
sun  sank  in  loneliness  and  gloom. 


5^ 


Chapter  III 


w- 


HIS  ZENITH  AND    THE   BEGIN- 
NINGS   OF    PROTESTANTISM 

^^jy£/HE  Imperial  authorities 
"^^^^ represented  in  the  Court 


Wi^v^at  Brussels  had  mean- 
j^^^^  while  become  alive  to  the 
.^%^^  importance  of  their  sub- 
;^^Mject:  Erasmus  had  al- 
V  ^^^>^-,<>^  Y^gsv  ready  attempted  some 
indirect  overtures  to  Maximilian,  and 
thither  he  had  to  repair.  On  the  way  he 
stayed  a  short  time  with  Mountjoy,  the 
governor  of  Hammes,  in  the  Pale  of  Calais. 
It  was  here  that  the  whole  question  of  his 
dispensation,  which  the  Bishop  of  Cambrai 
had  obtained  for  him  twenty  years  ago, 
became  again  embarrassing.  Probably  he 
had  overstepped  the  scope  of  Julius's  dis- 
pensation, which  perhaps  was  only  strictly 
valid  for  Italy.  At  this  time  the  old  object 
of  his  devotion,  Servatius,  now  Prior  of 
Steyn,  wrote  to  him  asking  many  questions 
and  inviting  him  to  return  to  the  priory. 
The  reply  of  Erasmus  to  this  letter  is  most 
important,  for  in  it   are   set   out   all   his 

59 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

objections  to  the  conventual  life  and  other 
more  intimate  matters,  Erasmus  insisted 
on  his  physical  limitations:  "Jejuniorum 
semper  impatiens  fui  .  •  .  semel  excitatus 
e  somno  nunquam  potui  redormiscere,"  ^ 
and  so  on.  Not  very  weighty  reasons 
these  ;  but  In  some  cases  the  difficulty  may 
be  insuperable.  *^  Tam  varia/'  he  pro- 
ceeds, *'  est  hominum  sententia  et  suus 
cuique  avium  cantus  ut  omnibus  satis- 
fieri  non  possit."  ^  He  is  on  more  solid 
ground  when  he  speaks  of  the  pressure 
brought  to  bear  on  him  before  he  took  the 
vows,  and  meets  the  objection  as  to  the 
years  of  probation  by  the  remark,  "  What 
can  a  boy  of  seventeen  know  of  his  own 
mind  ? ''  and  insists  on  the  fact  that  letters 
had  always  been  his  real  interest.  He 
must  have  been  speaking  generally  of  the 
abuse  of  too  youthful  profession  ;  for  in 
his  own  case,  although  we  do  not  know  the 
year,  it  is  certain  that  Erasmus  was  some 
way  past  seventeen.  He  speaks  of  his 
temperate  habits.     ^*  Crapulam  et  ebrieta- 

1  "  My  constitution  was  always  upset  by  fasting,  and  when 
I  was  aroused  from  sleep  could  never  fall  asleep  again." 

^  "So  different  are  the  types  of  men,  just  as  each  bird  has 
its  own  note,  that  it  is  impossible  to  satisfy  everyone." 

60 


71IE  BEGINNINGS  OF  PROTESTANTISM 

tern  semper  horrui  fugiquc."  ^  We  need 
not  suppose  that  the  Dutch  monks  were 
drunkards,  but  they  were  Dutchmen  as  well 
as  monks  ;  the  folk  of  the  Low  Countries 
had  some  reputation  for  the  absorption 
of  liquor,  and  on  festivals  they  probably 
drank  too  much  for  Erasmus's  fastidious 
taste.  Erasmus  further  lamented  : 
**  Voluptatibus  etsi  quondam  fui  inclinatus 
Veneri  nunquam  servivi,"  ^  He  instanced 
all  the  Cardinals  and  the  Pope  who  were 
ready  to  receive  him  as  a  brother  :  the 
inference  seems  to  be  that  he  was  now  too 
important  a  person  to  be  a  mere  Augus- 
tinian  Canon,  and  the  same  idea  probably 
caused  him  to  give  up  his  lectures  at 
Cambridge. 

Finally,  he  wrote  that  if  he  thought 
that  he  could  conscientiously  return  to 
Steyn  he  would  set  out  that  very  day, 
and  the  rather  sad  salutation  followed  : 
^'  Bene  vale  quondam  sodalis   suavissime 

1  "  I  ever  had  a  horror  of  excess  and  drunkenness,  and  fled 
from  them." 

2  "  Although  at  one  time  I  was  inclined  to  an  excessive 
affection,  I  was  not  its  slave,  and  to  Venus  I  was  never  in 
bondage.*'  Erasmus  seems  to  be  referring  to  some  intimate 
matter  of  which  only  he  and  Servatius  knew  the  history. 

6i 


ERASxMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

nunc  pater  observande."  ^  It  is  pleasant 
to  think  that  the  friends  of  early  days 
did  not  finally  quarrel. 

Erasmus,  therefore,  appealed  through 
his  friend  Ammonius  ^  for  a  complete 
dispensation  to  free  him  from  any  danger 
of  his  being  forcibly  returned  to  Steyn. 
He  wrote  an  appeal  on  behalf  of  a  ficti- 
tious youth,  Florence,  whose  history  and 
troubles  were  his  own  ;  this  was  addressed 
to  the  protonotary,  who  was  given  the 
wholly  imaginary  name  of  Lambertus 
Grunnius.  The  Pope  sent  two  replies,  one 
to  Ammonius  absolving  someone  from 
all  breaches  of  ecclesiastical  law  and 
authorizing  him  to  live  in  the  world  and 
hold  benefices  in  spite  of  illegitimacy ; 
the  other  w^as  to  Erasmus  himself,  granting 
a  general  dispensation,  without  reference 
to    his    order    or    illegitimacy,    and    em- 

^  "A  fond  good-bye,  my  erstwhile  sweetest  companion, 
and  now  my  esteemed  father." 

*  Andrea  Ammonio  of  Lucca,  Apostolic  Notary  and 
Collector.  More  prized  him  and  lamented  his  death  from 
the  sweating  sickness  (15 17).  He  was  Latin  Secretary  to 
Henry  VHI,  and  a  Canon  of  Westminster.  He  is  said  to 
have  been  Nuncio  shortly  before  his  death ;  but  this  would 
seem  to  be  erroneous,  since  Cardinal  Chieregato  was  Nuncio 
1516. 

62 


7HE  BEGINNINGS  OF  PROTESTANTISM 

powering  him  to  hold  benefices  of  a  certain 
nature  and  value.  Erasmus's  really  strong 
point  was  the  manner  in  which  he  had 
been  forced  into  the  order.  The  rest  of 
his  arguments  are  less  convincing.  Hard 
cases  of  mistaken  vocation  have  arisen, 
like  hard  matrimonial  cases,  but  these  are 
no  argument  for  divorce  ;  no  one  need 
marry,  no  one  need  enter  an  order  ;  badly 
conducted  monasteries  in  those  days  did 
exist,  and  in  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth 
century  it  is,  I  suppose,  generally  admitted 
that  the  religious  life  was  not  seen  at  its 
best.  At  Brussels  Erasmus  found  the  Arch- 
duke Charles,  whose  chancellor  informed 
him  that  a  diocese  in  Sicily  was  at  his 
disposal.  He  did  not  feel  inclined  for  the 
charge  ;  but  still  it  w^as  a  sign  of  the  spirit 
of  reasonable  reform  which  we  see  after- 
wards at  Trent,  that,  in  spite  of  clamours, 
neither  Pope  nor  archduke  intended  to 
give  in  to  the  enemies  of  Erasmus — that  is 
to  say,  to  the  purely  obscurantist  section. 

In  the  midst  of  all  this  came  the  Reuchlin 
controversy  ( 1 5 1 4).  Reuchlin's  know- 
ledge of  Hebrew  was  neither  accurate  nor 
profound,  but  its  mere  study  was  regarded 

63 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

with  suspicion  ;  at  least  it  was  generally 
thought  that  no  Hebrew  books  other  than 
the  Old  Testament  should  be  tolerated. 
The  Augeyisptel  had  been  burnt  at  Koln  in 
February  1514,  according  to  an  edict  of 
Maximilian  against  Jewish  books  (1510). 
This  edict  had  hitherto  lain  dormant. 
The  Dominicans  restarted  the  trouble  by 
denouncing  Reuchlin  to  the  Inquisition  on 
account  of  some  of  his  writings.  Reuch- 
lin was  imprisoned  and  the  whole  matter 
referred  to  the  Pope.  The  Papal  Com- 
mission, in  1 516,  found  in  favour  of 
Reuchlin  :  at  the  request  of  the  Domi- 
nican, Hochstrat,  Leo  postponed  action  ; 
but,  in  1 520,  judgement  was  given  against 
the  writings  of  Reuchlin.  By  that  date 
the  question  had  ceased  to  have  a  great 
importance,  as  the  upheaval  of  the  Refor- 
mation overpowered  all  minor  matters. 
Erasmus  strongly  supported  Reuchlin  ^  in 
the  cause  of  learning  and  wrote  on  the 
subject  to  his  friend  San  Giorgio.     In  the 

*  The  Reuchlin  controversy  was  keenly  followed  in 
England.  His  supporters  included  such  famous  men  as 
Grocyn  ;  the  Chancellor  of  Canterbury  ;  Linacre,  the  well- 
known  physician ;  W.  Latimer,  fellow  of  All  Souls,  friend 
of  More,  and  tutor  to  R.  Pole  ;  Colet,  More,  and  Ammonius. 

64 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  PROTESTANTISM 

defence  of  pure  learning  Erasmus  showed 
a  zeal  which  he  never  showed  for  the  so- 
called  reformers  :  scholarship  was  his  own 
field,  not  the  propagation  of  heresy.  He 
wrote  to  Pirkheimer  on  the  matter,  in 
which  he  stated  that  His  Holiness  him- 
self seemed  afraid  of  the  friars,  and 
described  Pfejfferkorn,^  Reuchlin's  bitterest 
opponent,  in  the  most  satirical  manner. 
Erasmus,  however,  was  alive  to  the  peril  of 
the  study,  or  rather  of  the  exclusive  study, 
of  Greek,  and  foresaw  a  possibly  worse 
danger  in  the  revival  of  Hebrew  ;  he  was 
no  pagan,  still  less  a  Judaizer.  Meanwhile, 
Erasmus  finished  his  Sf.  Jerome y  which  he 
dedicated  to  Leo  X,  to  whom  he  owed  so 
much  (151 5),  and  received  a  letter  of 
thanks  written  in  the  friendliest  possible 
spirit.  Leo  avowed  himself  our  scholar's 
special  patron,  and  recommended  him  to 
Henry  VHI  for  a  bishopric.  Leo  was 
ind.eed  a  splendid  patron  of  art  and 
learning,  as  became  a  member  of  that 
illustrious  family,  and  posterity  owes  a 
great  debt  to  that  Pontijff.  The  charge  of 
obscurantism,  so  frequently  levelled  at  the 

1  This  man  was  a  converted  Jew. 

E  65 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDJM 

Roman  Curia,  is  a  strange  one  :  of  all 
patrons  of  art  and  learning,  the  Renaissance 
Popes  were  the  most  magnificent ;  they 
could  not  be  expected  to  favour  heresy. 
The  same  critics  will  assail  the  Curia  for 
the  contrary  reason  :  that  it  was  too  pagan 
in  spirit,  too  much  devoted  to  the  arts  and 
learning,  and  not  sufficiently  spiritual. 
It  is  impossible  to  maintain  these  two 
charges  at  the  same  time.  "^  The  objection  is 
rather  similar  to  that  of  the  Pharisees  against 
our  Lord  and  St.  John  the  Baptist.  In  reality 
there  was  at  least  an  alternation,  for  if  a 
Pope  like  Leo  was  rather  more  sovereign 
in  character  than  priest,  his  successor, 
Adrian  VI,  was  a  wholly  spiritual  man. 

Reform  was  now  very  much  in  the  air 
until  all  was  spoiled  by  Luther's  violence, 
and  the  reforms  which  were  carried 
through  at  Trent  might  have  been 
anticipated  by  Leo.  There  were  some 
splendid  names  in  the  party  of  conservative 
reform  :  Leo  X  himself,  San  Giorgio,  Caje- 
tano  ^ — not  at  all  the  implacable  bigot  of 

*  Tomasso  de  Vio  of  Gaeta,  General  of  the  Dominicans 
in  1534.  He  was  Cardinal  in  15 17,  and  one  of  the  greatest 
supporters  of  the  Pope.  He  was  Legate  in  Germany  15 1 8, 
and  dealt  mth  the  Luther  trouble. 

66 


7HE  BEGINNINGS  OF  PROTESTJNTISM 

Froude's  imagination — Erasmus,  Sadolet,^ 
abroad,  and  in  England,  Warham  and 
Fisher,  Colet  and  More.  It  seems  strange 
that  these  could  effect  nothing  visible, 
at  the  time  ;  it  is  but  a  striking  instance 
of  the  powerlessness  of  intellect  and  worth 
in  this  world  against  popular  passion  and 
violence.  All  popular  movements  are 
more  or  less  suspect,  and  the  Reformation 
at  its  outbreak  (in  Germany)  was  popular  ; 
that  is,  it  appealed  to  the  uncultured  and 
common,  however  much  it  was  subse- 
quently patronized  by  the  princes  of  the 
Empire  for  their  own  territorial  aggran- 
disement. At  that  period  there  was  still 
time  to  avert  the  desolation  of  Christen- 
dom ;  within  a  few  years  the  party  of 
innovation  had  advanced  beyond  any 
possibility  of  conciliation.  It  so  happened 
that  the  leader,  Luther,  was  a  man  who 
was  irreconcilable  by  nature :  if  Me- 
lanchthon,  who  was  indeed  the  intellectual 
head  of  Protestantism,  had  been  also  the 
popular  leader,  some  understanding  be- 
tween him  and  the  Holy  See  might  con- 
ceivably have  been  reached  ;  but  popular 

*  Bishop  of  Carpentras  and  Papal  Secretary  of  State. 

67 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

leaders  always  lack  reason.  Goethe  said 
that  the  progress  of  mankind  had  been 
thrown  back  for  centuries  when  popular 
passion  was  called  up  to  decide  questions 
which  belonged  to  thinkers.  At  this 
momentous  period  of  the  world's  history 
it  seems  probable,  however,  that  more  than 
human  activities  intervened. 

At  Louvain  a  concerted  attack  on  all 
Erasmus's  work  was  being  planned,  and 
the  storm  soon  broke  on  him.  The  hos- 
tility of  the  orders  at  Louvain  was  very 
great,  but  Leo  decided  every  point  which 
they  raised  in  favour  of  Erasmus,  nor  could 
the  Emperor  be  roused  to  hostility.  Any- 
how, the  great  explosion  caused  by  the 
Wittenberg  theses  (1517)  made  all  else 
seem  in  comparison  to  be  insignificant. 
This  is  no  place  to  outline  Luther's  history 
and  influence,  but  his  connection  with 
Erasmus  is  important. 

Luther  came  into*  fame,  even  into  history, 
with  his  ninety-five  theses.  He  first  wrote 
to  Erasmus  in  1516,  but  the  very  next 
year  saw  the  fundamental  difference  be- 
tween the  two.  In  1 5 1 9  we  have  a  letter 
from   Luther   in   which  the  difference  is 

68 


7HE  BEGINNINGS  OF  PROTESTANTISM 

minimized  and  hopes  for  mutual  respect 
are  entertained  ;  the  quarrel  was  still  only 
latent.  Luther  was  very  nervous  about 
his  position,  as  his  dedicatory  letter  to 
Frederick  of  Saxony  showed  ;  his  friends 
were  even  more  uneasy,  and  sought  eagerly 
the  support  of  scholars.  Erasmus  only 
knew  of  Luther  by  repute  and  some  slight 
correspondence  ;  he  did  not  read  his  works, 
but  knew  enough  about  them  to  oppose 
Froben's  publication.  Erasmus  did  not 
respond  to  the  appeal  at  all  cordially, 
and  made  no  concealment  of  his  dislike 
of  the  trouble  which  he  saw  Luther's 
ways  would  create.  At  the  same  time  he 
said  that  he  had  already  helped  to  defend 
him  v/ithout  in  any  way  committing 
himself  to  Luther's  views.  But,  as  time 
went  on,  Erasmus  looked  upon  Luther 
more  and  more  as  the  worst  obstacle  to 
peaceful  reform  and  fatal  to  his  own  pro- 
jects. By  the  curious  nemesis  which 
awaits  heresy,  Luther  in  turn  regarded 
the  later  extreme  reformers  much  in  the 
light  that  Erasmus  had  regarded  himself. 
Erasmus  further  wrote  to  Wolsey  saying 
that  he  held  no  brief  for  Luther,  thought 

69 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

him  imprudent,  but  would  not  decide  on 
any  one  of  Luther's  points  ;  he  himself 
will  always  be  found  on  the  side  of  the 
Holy  See.  Even  when  Luther's  action 
had  been  condemned  by  the  Pope,  Eras- 
mus wrote  to  Albrecht  of  Brandenburg, 
Archbishop  and  Elector  of  Mainz,  to 
urge  moderation  in  the  matter  of  the 
indulgences  and  monastic  orders  and  giving 
a  qualified  sort  of  support  to  Luther.^ 

The  Elector  of  Mainz  was  a  great  friend 
of  Erasmus,  who  regarded  him  as  belonging 
to  the  conservative  party  of  reform.  The 
Elector  was  also  a  close  friend  of  Leo  X  and 
one  of  the  most  powerful  of  churchmen  ; 
he  it  was  who  had  the  chief  interest  in 
the  sale  of  the  indulgences  associated  with 
the  name  of  the  Dominican  Tetzel,  and  it 
must  have  required  some  courage  on  the 
part  of  Erasmus  to  risk  giving  offence  to 
his  highly  placed  patron.  Albrecht  took 
it  all  very  well.  He  was  obviously  a 
secularly  minded  young  man  who  really 

*  This  magnanimous  letter  was  given  a  force,  which  was 
far  from  Erasmus's  intention,  hy  the  act  of  Hutten,  who,  by 
interpolating  noster  before  Ltitherus,  gave  it  a  wholly  favour- 
able sense.  This  dishonesty  accentuated  the  differences 
between  Erasmus  and  Hutten. 

70 


7HE  BEGINNINGS  OF  PROTESTANTISM 

had  no  suitability  for  the  office  of  arch- 
bishop and  cardinal.  As  Elector  he  was 
quite  satisfactory  ;  and,  in  regard  to  his 
magnificence  and  liberality,  he  was  worthy 
to  be  the  friend  of  the  Pope. 

This  apparent  contradiction  in  Eras- 
mus's attitude  is  probably  best  explained  by 
his  fear  that  if  Luther  were  to  be  wholly 
suppressed,  learning  and  enquiry  would 
likewise  sujffer  ;  the  ultra-conservative 
elements,  more  especially  Erasmus's  old 
enemies,  the  friars,  would  triumph  over- 
much, and  he  himself  might  not  improb- 
ably come  to  be  in  a  position  of  some 
difficulty  if  not  of  actual  danger.  More- 
over, Luther's  vagaries  had  at  least,  so 
thought  Erasmus,  caused  the  theologians  to 
study  afresh  the  Fathers.  Erasmus  was 
alive  to  the  existence  of  several  abuses,  and 
doubtless  in  the  matter  of  the  indulgences 
he  thought  that  a  salutary  shock  had 
been  given  to  the  authorities.  He  never 
attacked  the  theory  of  indulgences,  but  the 
manner  in  which  the  Elector  and  Tetzel 
manipulated  them.  Luther  raged  against 
the  whole  theory  and  the  successor  of  St, 
Peter  as  well. 

71 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

It  may  be  pointed  out  that  the  Elector*s 
action  was  indefensible,  Tetzel  was  rather 
less  to  blame,  and  no  condemnation  of 
quaestors  and  corrupt  gains  could  be  more 
severe  than  that  embodied  in  the  decrees 
of  the  Council  of  Trent,^  Copies  of 
Erasmus's  New  Testament,  with  notes, 
spread  rapidly  over  Europe  and  caused 
alarm  to  some.  Leo  X  had  already  given 
his  special  patronage  to  the  work  and 
refused  all  the  clamours  for  an  examination 
of  Erasmus's  work.  Now  this  alarm  was 
perfectly  natural ;  the  Vulgate  had  come  to 
be  regarded  as  almost  equally  inspired 
with  the  original,  although  St.  Jerome 
particularly  says  that  he  was  not  so  ;  and 
by  his  alternative,  and  in  some  cases 
unreliable,  retranslations  it  seemed  to 
some  as  though  Erasmus  had  made  havoc 
of  the  Holy  Scripture.  Nor  were  their 
fears  for  the  future  unfounded.  In  the 
popularization  of  the  New  Testament  lay 
all  the  strength  of  the  future  heresies : 

*  "  Statuit  ut  posthac  in  quibuscumque  Christianae 
religionis  locis  eorum  nomen  [i.e.  ques tores]  atqiie  usus 
penitus  aboleatur."  (Sessio  xxxi,  caput  ix.)  ("  It  is  decreed 
that  henceforth,  in  whatever  regions  of  Christendom,  their 
name  and  employment  be  utterly  abolished.") 

72 


7HE  BEGINNINGS  OF  PROTESTANTISM 

for,  apart  from  Erasmus's  own  errors  of 
translation,  it  was  but  the  precursor  of 
many  editions  of  the  Bible,  some  wholly 
heretical,  some  free  from  serious  error,  but 
all  lending  themselves  to  the  most  kaleido- 
scopic interpretations  when  individual 
judgement  ran  riot  on  certain  texts  with- 
out the  control  of  the  Church.  Erasmus 
intended  all  his  writings  to  be  for  learned 
and  calm^^irclesj  he  disliked  and  mis- 
trusted all  popular  enthusiasm,  and  Lu- 
ther's own  type  of  mind  was  itself  the 
scholastic  one  to  which  Erasmus  so  much 
objected.  He  feared  a  sort  of  new  and, 
to  him,  more  intolerable  scholasticism 
if  Luther's  views  were  to  prevail.  Eras- 
mus, in  common  wdth  most  scholars  of  the 
day,  had  an  unnecessary  and  invincible 
prejudice  against  scholasticism  ;  not  only 
against  the  debased  form  then  current, 
but,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  against 
the  whole  philosophy.  In  our  own  days 
scholasticism  is  again  coming  into  its 
own. 

Luther  now  wrote  to  Erasmus  asking  for 
active  help.  This  was  particularly  un- 
welcome to   Erasmus.     The   most   active 

73 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

enemies  of  Erasmus's  New  Testament  were 
the  Dominican,  Hochstrat,  whom  we  have 
met,  the  Carmelite,  Egmond  of  Louvain, 
and  more  especially  Lee,  afterwards  Arch- 
bishop of  York.  Another  Carmelite, 
Nicholas  Baechem  of  Alkmaar,  was  a  later 
enemy  of  Erasmus  ;  and  Miles  Standish, 
afterwards  Provincial  of  the  Franciscans, 
one  of  the  most  servile  of  all  churchmen 
to  Henry  VIII,  was  another  pet  aversion 
of  Erasmus's. 

Erasmus  was  temperamentally  hostile  to 
radical  measures  ;  he  desired  reform,  slow, 
gradual,  mitigated.  He  wished  to  confine 
all  discussion  to  theologians  and  scholars. 
He  struggled  to  draw  Melanchthon  from 
the  fury  of  dispute  and  destruction  which 
he  saw  coming. 

"  Malim  te  plus  opera  sumere  in  asserendis 
bonis  literis  quam  insectandis  harum  hostibus. 
Praeterea  certandum  est  nobis  ut  non  solum 
eloquentia  varum  etiam  modastia  morumque 
levitate  superiores  illis  videamur."  ^ 

^  "  I  could  wish  you  rather  to  be  engaged  in  spreading 
about  the  knowledge  of  learning  than  in  combatingits  enemies. 
Moreover,  we  must  strive  noc  only  by  our  eloquence,  but 
by  the  modesty  and  ease  of  our  manners,  to  show  ourselves 
their  superiors.". 

74 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  PROTESTANTISM 

Erasmus  had  some  difficulty  in  main- 
taining his  ground,  so  fierce  was  the  attack 
on  different  sides  in  spite  of  the  unfailing 
support  of  the  Vatican  ;  and  openly  to 
help  Luther  after  the  Papal  condemnation 
would  have  been  fatal.  He  constantly 
asserted  :  '*  Lutherus  tam  mihi  ignotus 
quam  cui  ignotissimus  ''  ^  ;  and,  again, 
to  Leo  X  he  wrote :  ''  Non  sum  tam 
demens  ut  contra  summum  Christi  Vica- 
rium  ausim  quidquam  qui  ne  peculiari 
quidem  episcopo  meo  velim  adversari."  ^ 
He  firmly  refused  Luther's  appeal,  thus 
gaining  the  lasting  hostility  of  the  Pro- 
testants and  yet  not  wholly  conciliating 
many  Catholics.  The  truth  is  that  Eras- 
mus, who  always  opposed  ignorance  and 
abuses,  felt  no  call  to  sacrifice  himself  for  a 
cause  which  was  not  his  own  ;  he  foresaw 
to  some  extent  what  was  coming  in  later 
years,  and,  if  he  had  lived  longer,  would 
have  become  far  more  strongly  Papal. 
In  the  autumn  of  1520,  therefore,  matters 

*  "  No  one  can  be  more  unknown  to  anybody  than  Luther 
18  to  me.'* 

^  Louvain,  September  1520.  "I  am  not  mad  enough  to 
attempt  anything  against  the  supreme  Vicar  of  Christ,  I 
who  would  not  contradict  even  the  bishop  of  my  diocese." 

75  - 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

were  on  the  edge  of  a  catastrophe,  and  the 
world  waited.  Luther  had  burned  the  Bull 
and  a  copy  of  the  Decretals,  thereby 
challenging  the  Pope  to  a  trial  of  strength  ; 
the  young  and  recently  elected  Charles  V 
had  summoned  the  Diet  to  meet  in  January 
1 52 1  at  Worms.  There  was  no  doubt 
whatever  as  to  the  attitude  of  Charles  or 
of  his  orthodoxy,  although  he  was  not 
expected  to  be  the  ally  of  the  purely  con- 
servative school  of  Louvain.  Luther's 
resources  were  indeed  slender,  and  the 
elements  of  success  on  his  side  appeared  to 
be  almost  negligible.  In  reality  his  appeal 
to  German  nationalism,  as  opposed  to  Italy, 
had  deeply  stirred  the  masses  ;  it  soon 
brought  his  cautious  adherent,  the  Elector 
of  Saxony,  openly  to  his  side,  and  it  even 
to  some  slight  extent  awoke  response  in 
the  mind  of  Charles  V.  Luther  himself 
had  little  hope  for  his  cause  or  even  for  his 
own  safety  when  he  set  out  for  Worms. 

Erasmus  had  stirred  up  several  wasps' 
nests,  and  was  far  from  being  comfortable. 
He  had  dedicated  his  Ephestans  to  Cardinal 
Campeggio,  and  probably  hoped  to  return 
to  what  was  still  the  more  peaceful  England 

76 


7 HE  BEGINNINGS  OF  PROTESTANTISM 

under  the  Cardinars  protection.  Cam- 
peggio  was  a  very  learned  canon  lawyer, 
and  was  regarded  as  a  strong  supporter  of 
the  revival  of  letters.  He  had  taken  orders 
after  his  wife's  death.  Erasmus,  in  the 
same  year  (1520),  wrote  to  Henry  VHI 
as  well  as  to  Mountjoy  and  Pace,  Sir 
Henry  Guildford,  and  Wolsey  with  the 
same  object  in  view — that  of  establishing 
himself  in  England.  Henry  had  before 
assured  him  of  a  second  living,  and  from 
Warham  he  had  had  repeated  offers  of 
welcome.  Previously  he  had  seemed  in- 
different as  to  English  help,  but  times 
had  changed.  However,  either  from  Im- 
perial pressure  to  stay,  or  from  lack  of  any 
real  welcome  to  England,  or  perhaps  owing 
to  the  fact  that  the  facilities  for  printing 
were  very  poor  in  England  compared  with 
those  on  the  Continent,  all  this  came  to 
nothing,  and  he  never  re-entered  England. 
Campeggio  and  Aleander,^  who  was  to 

^  Girolamo  Aleander  was  Nuncio  to  the  Elector  of 
Saxony.  He  was  well  qualified  for  the  post  owing  to  his 
intimacy  with  the  German  affairs.  He  was  a  highly  cultured 
man ;  latterly,  as  matters  in  the  Empire  became  more 
critical,  he  regarded  the  tribe  of  poets  and  grammarians  as  the 
worst  enemies  of  the  Holy  See. 

77 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

conduct  the  case  against  Luther  at  the 
Diet,  came  to  Louvain  to  consult  Erasmus, 
and  from  the  other  side  came  urgent 
requests  to  Erasmus  for  support,  possibly 
from  the  Landgraf  of  Hesse  or  from  the 
Elector  of  Saxony.  He  refused  all  support 
for  Luther  in  an  answer  to  some  well- 
known  person,  Vir  praepote7is^  at  whose 
identity  we  have  hinted.  It  is  an  appeal 
to  moderation  :  "  The  matter  can  be  ar- 
ranged by  the  Pope,  your  Highness,  the 
Princes  of  the  Empire,  and  the  scholars,  if 
only  the  vulgar  mob  are  kept  out.'* 

"  I  will  not  join  Lutlier  until  I  see  he  is  on 
the  side  of  the  Church ;  but  if  there  is  to  be 
a  cleavage  and  the  Church  is  torn  in  two,  I  will 
stand  on  the  rock  of  Peter  until  the  return  of 
peace 


» 


The  Diet  finally  met  on  January  28, 
1 52 1,  and  Leo  X  had  already  issued  the 
Bull  "  In  Coena  Domini,"  in  which  Luther 
was  mentioned  by  name  as  an  enemy  of  the 
Church.  The  appearance  of  Luther  at 
Worms  was  a  courageous  act,  but  the 
courage  has  been  somewhat  exaggerated  by 
historians.     What  else  could  he  have  done  ? 

78 


7HE  BEGINNINGS  OF  PROTESTANTISM 

Sooner  or  later  he  would  have  been  hunted 
out  ;  there  was  no  place  of  retreat,  for,  as 
Froude  remarks,  the  Church  was  every- 
where ;  Protestant  ^  countries  did  not  yet 
exist, and hehad  some  remote  chance  before 
the  Diet. 

Charles  was  not  impressed  by  Luther  : 
**  This  man  will  never  make  a  heretic  of 
me."  Luther  was  simply  asked  if  he 
acknowledged  the  authorship  of  certain 
works,  and  then  was  required  to  retract. 
He  refused.  The  ban  was  pronounced, 
but  he  was  given  until  the  expiration  of 
the  safe-conduct  before  judgement  should 
be  executed.  The  significance  of  Worms 
turns  on  the  fact  that,  for  the  first  time  in 
history,  a  private  person  had  defied  Church 
and  Empire  without  coming  to  grief.  It 
is  true  that  the  reprieve  seemed  likely  to  be 
of  the  shortest  kind,  for  no  one  could 
foresee  how  Luther,  on  his  way  home,  was 
to  be  carried  off  by  sham  brigands  to  the 
castle  of  Wartburg,  and  there  kept  hidden 
until,  with  the  outbreak  of  war,  Charles 

^  It  is  historically  exact  not  to  speak  of  Protestantism 
until  after  the  Recess  of  Speier.  The  Protesters  were  six 
princes  and  fourteen  cities.  Strictly  speaking,  Lutherans 
alone  are  entitled  to  the  term. 

79 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

needed  the  help  of  all  his  Germans.  It  was 
then,  to  use  his  own  words,  '^  No  time  to 
talk  of  Luther."  To  what  extent  Charles 
was  wholly  ignorant  of  the  Elector's  action 
is  a  debatable  subject.  George,  Duke  in 
Saxony,  and  certain  others  were  in  favour 
of  following  the  precedent  of  Sigismund 
at  Konstanz  and  ignoring  the  safe-conduct. 
Erasmus  thought  that  Luther  had  done  for 
himself,  and  was  anxious  to  save  Melanch- 
thon  from  being  involved  in  the  same  ruin. 
In  May  1521  he  wrote  to  Jonas  Jodocus 
that  by  his  "  Babylonish  captivity  "  and 
other  acts  Luther  had  willingly  provoked 
his  fate.  In  the  same  strain  he  wrote  to 
Warham,  at  the  same  time  regretting  that, 
with  the  times  so  much  in  favour  of 
reasonable  reform,  Luther  had  not  shown 
more  sense  and  moderation.  Much  the 
same  sentiment  was  entertained  earlier 
by  Machiavelli  with  regard  to  the  failure 
of  Savonarola.  As  the  year  wore  on 
it  became  clear  that  all  was  not  over 
with  Luther,  and  Erasmus  wrote  again  to 
Warham  complaining  of  the  dangerous 
situation  and  saying  that  he  must  read 
Luther*s  works  and  write  something  about 

80 


niE  BEGINNINGS  OF  PROTESTJNTISM 

him.  Erasmus,  like  Blessed  Thomas  More 
and  other  excellent  men  of  the  day,  was 
in  no  way  inclined  to  change  the  old 
beliefs  for  new.  There  was  an  enormous 
difference  between  a  reformation  of  the 
Church's  discipline  and  a  change  of  doc- 
trine. All  his  friends,  bishops,  Aulic 
Councillors  and  others  urged  on  him  the 
necessity  to  write  and  put  down  Luther 
by  the  force  of  his  learning,  as  well  as 
to  clear  himself  from  all  complicity  with 
the  heretical  movement.  Mountjoy  wrote 
very  strongly  on  the  subject,  and  he  was 
speaking  for  More  and  Fisher  quite  as 
much  as  for  himself. 

We  have  reached  a  crisis  in  the  world's 
history.  Worms  forms  the  great  dividing 
line.  The  events  before  and  after  that 
Diet  are  so  dissimilar  that  they  must 
be  treated  in  the  next  chapter.  The 
various  actors  in  the  course  of  events,  so  far 
as  we  have  gone,  have  to  choose  on  which 
side  they  will  stand,  and  a  definite  party 
of  Reformation — that  is,  of  innovation 
and  heresy,  irreconcilable  to  the  claims 
of  the  Church — ^henceforth  existed.  More, 
it  sprang  up  to  its  full  stature  in  a  sur- 

F  8l 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

prisingly  short  space  of  time,  and  Erasmus, 
whose  younger  days  and  maturity  had 
been  passed  in  a  society  which  could  not 
imagine  any  serious  schism,  lived  to  see  not 
only  Lutheran  ism,  but,  such  is  the  fissi- 
parous  tendency  of  heresy,  far  more  ad- 
vanced opinions,  prevail.  Lutherans  were, 
after  all,  the  conservative  Reformed  ;  be- 
hind Luther  came  the  Sacramentarians, 
originally  led  by  Zwingli,  and  the  sour 
figure  of  Calvin,  whose  system  exercised 
such  a  fatal  fascination  over  Scotland  and 
then  over  England.  Nor  was  this  all  ;  the 
vagaries  of  Carlstadt  ^  and  Martin  Cellarius 
followed,  down  to  the  sheer  insanity  of  the 
Munster  Anabaptists.  To  all  of  these 
Luther  was  as  much  opposed  as  to  the 
Church  ;  Melanchthon,  very  much  more 
so.  Erasmus  took  but  little  interest  in  or 
ftotice  of  them.  He  was  concerned  only 
actively  with  Luther,  for,  entirely  as  he 

*  Andreas  von  Bodenstein  threw  himself  into  the  advanced 
wing  of  reform  1520,  after  the  Leipzig  disputation  (with 
Eck).  He  first  gave  up  the  ceremonial  of  the  Mass,  which 
Luther  in  some  fashion  had  preserved  at  Wittenberg, 
sympathized  witli  Zwingli,  with  the  revolted  peasants,  and 
even  with  the  Anabaptists.  After  1 5  34  he  professed  theology 
at  Basel,  and  spent  his  time  in  quarrels  with  his  old  friends. 

82 


7HE  BEGINNINGS  OF  PROTESTANTISM 

repudiated  Luther's  doctrine,  he  had  had 
originally  a  vague  interest  in  the  latter's 
protests.  He  also  felt  in  some  way  rather 
uneasy  as  to  his  own  share  in  the  disaster. 
His  enemies  always  said  that  by  his 
translations  and  paraphrases  of  the  New 
Testament  he  had  paved  the  way  for 
Luther,  and  by  his  satires  and  jests  at  the 
expense  of  some  of  the  orders  he  had 
unchained  a  tempest  against  the  religious 
in  general.  There  is  some  truth  in  that 
accusation.  Erasmus  and  other  scholars 
laid  an  intellectual  basis  for  revolt,  and 
Erasmus  did  in  fact  encourage  a  movement 
which  took  a  course  he  never  wished  or 
intended,  but  which,  with  all  his  genius 
and  prestige,  he  found  himself  entirely 
unable  to  control.  The  Popes,  in  turn, 
recognized  his  surpassing  intellect  and  his 
essential  honesty  ;  but  it  is  not  always 
prudent,  in  dangerous  times,  to  allow  a 
critical  spirit  too  great  liberty  and,  until 
the  mischief  was  done,  Erasmus  put 
but  slight  restraint  on  the  expression 
of  his  wayward  and  mordant  genius. 
Some  of  his  writings  would  have  been 
better    if    confined    to    a    more    narrow 

83 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDJM 

circle,     Schiller    reflects,    in   his  Wallen- 
stein  trilogy  : 

*^  The  action  was  mine  so  long  as  it  remained 
in  my  bosom ;  but,  once  sent  out  from  its  safe 
nursery  into  the  foreign,  it  became  the  property 
of  those  sly  malicious  powers  which  never  art 
of  man  conciliated." 

Erasmus  was  conscious  of  his  power  and  the 
undeserved  attacks  made  upon  him  con- 
tributed to  make  him  satirical.  He  knew 
that,  if  he  were  to  go  over  to  the  Lutheran 
party — and  there  was  no  lack  of  pressure  to 
persuade  him  to  openly  declare  for  them — 
the  case  would  be  virtually  settled  in  the 
learned  world,  and  his  action  w^ould  have 
a  far-reaching  effect  on  the  attitude  of 
Catholics  who  were  somewhat  shaken  in 
their  allegiance. 

Julius  Pflug  of  Leipzig  and  Naumburg 
thought  that  Erasmus  could  act  as  mediator 
between  Melanchthon  and  the  Emperor — 
he  recognized  that  Luther  was  hopeless — 
by  compelling  both  to  give  w^ay  on  certain 
points*  Erasmus  himself  said  that,  if  he 
had  any  trace  of  heresy  in  his  nature,  he 
would  long  ago  have  sought  refuge  with 

84 


i:he  beginnings  of  PROI'ESTJNTISM 

the  Lutherans,  so  deeply  had  the  attacks 
of  some  of  the  orders  affected  him  ;  he, 
however,  made  no  sects,  and  all  enquirers 
who  came  to  him  he  directed  to  apply  to 
the    Church    for  information.     The- hos- 
tility of  the  orders  varied,  but  Erasmus 
referred  to  the  Carmelites,  the  Franciscans, 
especially  the  observant  branch,  and  some 
way  behind  these  the  Dominicans,  as  his 
most  persistent  enemies.     After  all,  these 
orders  had  been  the  object  of  his  special 
attack    in    the    'Encomium    and    in    other 
writings.     The    Society  of  Jesus  was  not 
of    course  formed,    though    the    original 
members  were  younger  contemporaries  of 
Erasmus,   and    a   story  ^    relates    that    St. 
Ignatius    read    some  of    Erasmus's    New 
Testament,  but  could  not  continue  it,  as  he 
found  it  depressing.    This,  even  if  not  true, 
is  interesting,  for  it  shows  the  fundamental 
difference  between  the  two  types  of  mind. 
Doubtless  St.  Ignatius  would  not  under- 
stand, nor  indeed  like,  Erasmus's  critical 
spirit,  and  the  scholar  would  realize  neither 

1  But  another  form  of  the  story  gives  the  book  as  the 
Enchiridion  Militis  Christianai,  which  had  lately  been  trans- 
lated into  Spanish  with  the  permission  of  the  inquisitor 
Manrique. 

8s 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDJM 

the  supreme  genius,  as  great  as  his  own, 
nor  the  sanctity  of  the  Founder  of  the 
Company.  We  know,  however,  that  for 
posterity  and  in  our  own  times,  in  the 
spiritual  and  intellectual  worlds,  no  names 
have  greater  significance  than  those  of 
St.  Ignatius  and  Erasmus.  The  birth  and 
military  training  of  St.  Ignatius  gave  a 
distinct  type  to  his  mind.  He  regarded 
Erasmus  as  a  force  subversive  of  discipline 
in  practice  and  not  over  favourable  to 
respect  for  authority  in  the  abstract.  He 
would  not  allow  the  younger  members  of 
the  Company,  at  any  rate,  to  read  Erasmus's 
works,  and  the  Society  has  never  regarded 
him  with  much  favour.  Erasmus  is,  in 
fact,  an  author  whose  works  one  would 
not  recommend  to  those  who  had  not  a 
sufficient  knowledge  of  his  own  times 
to  enable  them  to  estimate  his  genius 
and  to  discount  his  mannerisms. 


86 


Chapter  IV 

HIS   TROUBLES  AND  LATER 
TEARS 

yg^HRIST  I  know,  Luther  I 
^^"^  do  not  know ;  the  Roman 
Church  I  know,  and 
^^  death  will  not  part  me 
""^from  it.  So  wrote 
1^^ Erasmus  early  in  15^,0, 
*^^when  the  question  of 
Luther  became  pressing,  if  not  dangerous. 
In  November  of  the  next  year  he 
wrote  : 

^'  I  have  no  more  to  do  with  Luther  than 
with  any  one  else.  I  would  sooner  his  errors 
were  corrected  than  himself  lost,  but,  as  he  has 
been  scattering  poison,  the  hand  of  the  scatterer 
must  gather  it  again." 

And,  more  uncharitably : 

"  They  may  roast  or  boil  Luther  for  all  I 
care,  it  will  be  but  one  person  the  less  in  the 
world ;  but,  in  the  interests  of  humanity  as  a 
whole,  the  papal  party  have  been  foolish. 
There  is  to  be  some  sort  of  Edict — may  it 
prosper  !    I  do  not  care  anything  about  Luther's 

87 


ERJSMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

fate ;  but  I  like  peace,  and  when  once  peace 
is  disturbed  the  scum  ahvays  comes  to  the 
surface." 

How  modern  a  touch  !  Do  we  not  say 
the  same  thing  after  our  experience  of  the 
past  seven  years  ?  Erasmus  was  always  in 
favour  of  stability  at  any  price.  No 
sentiment  could  have  been  less  in  favour 
of  heresy  than  all  this.  Erasmus,  at  the 
same  time,  was  wholly  opposed  to  over 
definition,  and  many  of  the  disputes  of  the 
day  were  centred  round  matters  the  dis- 
cussion of  which,  if  not  exactly  irreverent, 
was  wholly  unprofitable. 

Erasmus  disliked  intolerance  and  pro- 
bably in  his  heart  thought  that  Catholicism 
was  rather  overlaid  by  definition  ;  his 
dislike  and  fear  of  a  false  theology  rigidly 
defined  and  intolerant,  into  which  the 
Reformation  very  soon  developed,  was  one 
cause  of  his  hostility  to  Luther.  The 
prevailing  uncertainty  was  a  constant 
irritation  to  him,  and  when  irritated  Eras- 
mus became  flippant  and  sarcastic.  He 
diagnosed  the  troubles  of  the  times  with 
remarkable  accuracy  in  his  correspondence 
with  his  friends,  but  once  his  perspicacity 


HIS  TROUBLES  AND  LATER  TEARS 

failed  him  :  "  The  present  tempest  will 
not  last  long."  Alas,  it  has  raged  for  400 
years,  and  still  is  raging.  Erasmus  truly 
claimed,  in  a  letter  to  Leo  X,  that  he  was 
the  first  to  suspect  danger  in  Luther  when 
he  warned  Froben  against  publishing  his 
works.  He  was  now  living  at  Basel  so  as 
to  be  better  able  to  supervise  his  publica- 
tions, and  Louvain,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
not  a  particularly  comfortable  abode.  In 
the  midst  of  the  crisis  Leo  X  died  and 
Adrian  VI  ascended  the  papal  throne.  He 
was  an  old  schoolfellow  of  Erasmus,  in  the 
Deventer  days,  as  well  as  a  fellow  country- 
man. The  new  Pope  was  extremely  sim- 
ple and  austere  in  life,  and  determined  on 
a  reform  of  discipline  and  the  decrease  of 
the  expenses  of  the  Vatican.  A  remark- 
ably pious  and  excellent  man,  he  was 
perhaps  rather  too  complete  an  antithesis 
in  character  to  his  predecessor  ;  he  was 
somewhat  of  a  shock  to  Roman  circles,  and 
frankly,  was  not  wholly  the  kind  of  Pope 
the  days  demanded.  Something  of  a 
statesman,  or,  at  any  rate,  a  Pope  who  had 
a  wide  insight  into  men  and  things  and 
touched  by  the  Renaissance  was  the  great 

89 


ERJSMUS    OF  ROTTERDAM 

need.  Unfortunately,  too,  as  a  Dutchman 
and  foreigner,  he  was  not  persona  grata 
in  Rome.  Adrian  had  had  little  personal 
connection  with  Rome  before  his  election. 
He  and  Charles  were  equally  in  earnest 
about  reform,  and  he  was  above  all 
determined  to  enquire  into  the  abuses  of 
the  Roman  Court  which  were  arousing 
so  much  excitement  throughout  Europe. 
We  know  how  great  was  the  exaggeration 
of  those  who  were  personally  interested  in 
revolution,  but  some  reform  was  desirable 
and  no  one  could  have  been  more  suitable 
than  the  austere  Adrian  to  carry  it  out. 

Authorities  were  becoming  annoyed  at 
Erasmus's  persistent  silence  on  the  subject 
of  Luther  in  public,  though  he  was 
eloquent  enough  in  his  private  letters, 
and  the  Pope  was  not  over-pleased  at  a 
letter  from  his  old  school-fellow.  Finally, 
he  was  obliged  to  turn  to  his  old  friend, 
now  the  most  learned  and  influential 
man  in  Europe,  for  help  in  his  task 
(December  1522).  This  correspondence 
is  interesting,  for  it  reveals  their  attitude 
and  their  esteem  for  each  other  in  spite 
of  the  difference  between  the  two — the 

90 


HJS  TROUBLES  AND  LATER   TEARS 

earnestness  of  the  Pope  and  the  touch  of 
levity  in  Erasmus's  replies.  *'  Exsurge, 
exsurge  in  adjutorium  causae  Dei  et 
praeclaris  dotibus  ingenii  quas  ab  eo 
accepisti  utere."  ^  Adrian  reminds  him 
that  he  can  recall  those  who  have  been 
misled  by  Luther  and  bids  him  think  of 
the  words  of  St.  James :  ^*  He  that  recovers 
a  sinner  from  the  error  of  his  ways  shall 
cover  the  multitude  of  his  sins.''  Erasmus 
replied  at  length  as  to  his  good  disposition, 
but  referred  to  his  ill  health,  and  made  the 
well-known  parallel  that  to  ask  him  to  go 
to  Rome  was  like  asking  a  crab  to  fly. 
Erasmus's  mind  was  like  highly  tempered 
steel  which  cuts  everything  that  it  touches. 
Adrian  quickly  stopped  the  outcry  of  the 
Louvain  Carmelites,  and  Erasmus  enjoyed 
his  protection  as  well  as  that  of  the  Em- 
peror, the  Imperial  Chancellor,  the  Elector 
of  Mainz,  and  many  others. 

Adrian  VI,  the  last  non-Italian  to  occupy 
the  throne  of  St.  Peter,  reigned  but  a  short 
time.     His  constitution  was  but  ill  adapted 

*  "  Arouse  yourself  and  rise  in  defence  of  the  cause  of  God, 
and  for  it  make  use  of  the  excellent  gifts  of  intellect  which 
you  have  received  from  Him." 

91 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

for  a  permanent  residence  in  Rome,  and  his 
plans  were  not  allowed  time  in  which  to 
mature.  Giulio  dc'  Medici  became  St. 
Peter's  successor  as  Clement  VII.  In  Ger- 
many all  was  chaos.  The  Reformation  had 
broken  loose,  monasteries  and  nunneries 
were  destroyed,  and  the  inmates  dispersed, 
some  of  whom  married.  The  shrines  of 
the  saints  and  images  were  pulled  down  and 
the  crudest  of  doctrines,  more  particularly 
on  the  subject  of  predestination  and  free 
will,  were  becoming  widely  spread. 

Luther  was  brought  out  from  his  ob- 
scurity at  Wartburg  by  the  Elector  of 
Saxony,  partly  to  combat  the  extremists 
and  partly  to  organize  the  newly  invented 
religion.  Of  all  violent  men  Ulrich  von 
Hutten  was  ever  the  most  outrageous,  and 
it  was  the  fresh  attack  upon  himself  led 
by  this  man  that  determined  Erasmus  to 
act.  So  long  as  Luther  was  obscure  and 
in  danger  Erasmus  had  no  wish  to  attack 
him,  but,  as  the  active  organizer  of  an  ever- 
growing schism,  the  conditions  became 
altered.  Clement  appealed  earnestly  to 
him  to  use  his  great  powers  on  the  side  of 
the  Church.     Before  all  Erasmus  had  to 

92 


//AS  TROUBLES  AND  LATER  TEARS 

settle  Von  Hutten's  attack.  This  was 
done  in  the  Spongia  adversus  Aspergtnes 
Huttent^  I  S^3'  Their  friendship,  long 
undermined,  came  utterly  to  an  end  ; 
although  Erasmus  said  of  Hutten  that  he 
was  his  own  worst  enemy  and  shortly 
afterwards  his  meteoric  career  came  to  an 
end.  Erasmus,  now  living  mainly  at 
Basel,  was  supported  by  pensions  from 
three  sources — Mountjoy's,  Warham's,  and 
the  Emperor's ;  these  three,  as  well  as 
Blessed  Thomas  More,  Blessed  John  Fisher, 
and  the  Duke  in  Saxony,  combined  v/ith 
the  Pope  in  exhorting  Erasmus  to  deal 
plainly  with  the  Lutheran  heresy.  At 
this  time  Luther  wrote  to  Erasmus  in  a 
superior  tone,  very  unlike  the  letters  to 
which  our  scholar  was  accustomed  :  it 
was  not  exactly  hostile,  but  Erasmus 
decided  on  war,  and  ended  his  reply : 
''  Optarem  tibi  meliorem  mentem  nisi 
tibi  tua  tam  valde  placeret.  Mihi  optatis 
quod  voles  modo  ne  tuam  mentem  nisi 
tibi  Dominus  istam  mutaverit."  ^     Eras- 

1  "  I  could  desire  for  you  a  better  spirit  were  you  not 
wholly  satisfied  with  your  own.  Wish  for  me  what  you  like 
except  your  spirit,  unless  the  Lord  change  it." 

93 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

mus  originally  meditated  on  a  philosophical 
colloquy,  the  Eire?iicon^  but  rejected  it  as 
not  sufficiently  pointed,  and  decided  to 
attack  more  directly  Luther's  system  by 
a  book  on  free  will,  De  Libera  Arbltrto. 
Some  have  seen  in  this  a  mere  attempt 
to  confuse  the  issue,  and  to  bemuse  the 
world  with  a  metaphysical  discussion 
which  could  be  protracted  indefinitely 
v/ithout  leading  anywhere  in  particular, 
Froude,  an  unsafe  guide  in  Catholic 
matters,  was  no  doubt  right  in  this  case, 
when  he  maintained  that  the  contrary  was 
in  Erasmus's  mind  and  that  he  designed 
to  pierce  the  very  heart  of  Luther's  system. 
In  the  famous  disputation  Erasmus  defined 
free  will  thus :  ''  Liberum  arbitrium  est 
vis  humanae  voluntatis  qua  se  possit  homo 
applicare  ad  ea  quae  perducunt  ad  aeter- 
nam  salutem,  aut  ab  iisdem  avertere."  ^ 
It  was  an  admirable  definition  for  his 
purpose,  though  it  is  obvious  that  its 
scope  is  limited  to  the  actual  controversy. 
Erasmus  triumphed  easily.     He  said  that 

I  "  Free  will  is  the  power  of  choice  by  which  every  human 
beingcan  apply  himself  to  the  things  which  lead  to  everlasting 
safety,  or  turn  himself  away  from  them." 

94 


HIS  TROUBLES  AND  LATER  TEARS 

the  Servum  Arbitrhim  of  Luther  was  an 
old  heresy,  many  times  condemned  and 
recently  in  Wiclifs  case.  His  superior 
learning  told  :  he  cited  all  the  Fathers  and 
said  that  St.  Augustine,  if  not  misinter- 
preted, was  certainly  mistaken  in  this 
matter  and  that  the  vast  majority  of  early 
authorities  are  for  the  freedom  of  the  will. 
He  said  that  Scripture,  if  you  isolate  texts, 
is  contradictory,  and  such  texts  can  be 
made  to  prove  anything  apart  from  the 
authority  of  the  Church,  and  even  so  he 
interpreted  the  disputed  ones  very  dif- 
ferently to  Luther.  Moreover,  Erasmus 
considered  that  all  these  disputations  scan- 
dalize the  feeble  and  make  for  the  edifica- 
tion of  none.  It  was  Erasmus's  last  great 
triumph  :  Fisher  congratulated  him  on  his 
victory,  so  did  Henry  VHI,  and  the 
theologians  enquired  exultingly,  *^  Where 
is  now  your  Luther  ?  "  Luther  was  forced 
to  reply,  which  he  did  with  his  usual 
violence,  in  remarkable  contrast  to  the 
calm  abstraction  of  Erasmus,  In  his  reply, 
however,  to  Luther's  De  Servo  Arbttrio^ 
Hyperasptstes^  Erasmus  is  almost  as  violent, 
and  exercises  his  ingenuity  in  deriding 

95 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

Luther's  marriage.  Erasmus,  besides  ob- 
serving the  Church's  law  in  his  own  case, 
had  probably  a  vague  dislike  of  matrimony 
in  general.  In  December  1524  Erasmus 
wrote  a  wise  and  moderate  letter  to 
Melanchthon. 

^^  What  is  the  object  of  destroying  images 
and  changing  the  Canon  of  the  Mass  ?  What 
is  the  good  in  telling  youths  that  the  Pope  is 
Antichrist  and  that  confession  carries  the  plague; 
that  they  cannot  do  right  if  they  try,  that  all 
things  work  from  necessity,  and  that  man  can 
do  nothing  ? '' 

More  and  his  English  friends,  though 
well  pleased  with  the  two  attacks  of 
Erasmus  on  Luther,  still  desired  him  to 
make  a  complete  and  final  demolition  of  the 
enemy.  In  a  letter  to  More  and  in  another 
to  the  Dominican  Faber  he  expressed  his 
inner  thoughts,  troubles,  and  difficulties. 
Externally  matters  went  from  bad  to 
worse.  The  question  of  the  *^  divorce  " 
was  beginning  to  agitate  the  world. 
Clement  VII,  allied  with  Francis  I,  was  at 
war  with  the  Emperor,  and  shortly 
Charles's  mixed  army  of  Catholic  Spaniards 

96 


HIS  TROUBLES  AND  LATER  TEARS 

and  German  Lutherans  captured  and 
sacked  the  Eternal  City.  Plunder  and 
sacrilege  seems  to  have  been  carried  out 
indifferently  by  Catholic  and  heretic. 
The  only  leaders  of  the  rabble  calling  it- 
self the  Imperial  army  who  could  have 
restrained  the  horrors  which  were  per- 
petrated in  Rome,  the  Constable  de  Bour- 
bon, the  Prince  of  Orange,  and  even 
Freundsberg,  all  died  before  the  assault. 
Erasmus  was  in  despair.  He  had  hoped 
that  the  Pope  and  Emperor  would  work 
together.  Now  he  feared  that,  for  political 
reasons,  Charles  would  maintain  the  Pope 
in  the  Imperial  interest,  even  as  the  Kings 
of  France,  after  Philip  IV's  struggle  with 
Boniface  VIII,  used  the  Popes  at  Avignon 
in  the  French  interest.  He  wrote  to 
Warham : 

"  Men  now  suppose  that  the  Pope  and 
Emperor  will  make  a  composition  and  that 
Clement  will  come  out  on  the  Emperor's  side. 
It  is  all  wrong;  no  peace  will  come  in  that 
manner.  The  Pope  ought  to  be  neutral 
between  States.'' 

These    words  of  Erasmus   might   with 
•  97 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

advantage  have  been  scattered  broadcast 
over  Europe  during  the  last  seven  years, 
Erasmus  is  always  modern  ;  one  cannot 
have  a  thought  but  one  finds  that  he  has 
been  there  beforehand.  His  residence  at 
Basel  v^as  probably  dictated  by  the  fact 
that,  in  a  stormy  time,  Erasmus  preferred 
neutral  ground.  To  reside  in  Italy  or 
Germany  would  render  him  liable  to  be 
identified  too  much  with  contending 
factions.  To  France,  since  his  early  days, 
he  was  never  attracted,  and  indeed  the 
constant  warfare  of  Charles  and  Francis 
would  have  made  his  residence  there 
invidious  as  a  subject  of  the  former.  At 
Basel  he  was  in  touch  with  all  these 
territories,  and  communications  to  all  parts 
were  easy.  Basel  even  then,  to  use  an 
anachronism,  was  the  greatest  junction  in 
Europe.  Fresh  trouble  was  awaiting  Eras- 
mus, for,  whilst  Luther's  works,  written  in 
German,  had  but  little  circulation  out- 
side Germany,  Erasmus's  in  Latin  were 
read  throughout  Europe,  and  the  Spanish 
theologians  were  taking  alarm.  Charles, 
whose  orthodoxy  since  his  attack  on  the 
Pope  did  not  seem  to  be  above  suspicion, 

98 


HIS  TROUBLES  AND  LATER  TEARS 

allowed  the  demand  of  the  Inquisition  to 
examine  the  writings  of  Erasmus.  At 
the  same  time  he  stopped  the  violent 
attacks  which  were  being  made  on  him 
in  Spain,  and,  in  a  letter  December,  1527, 
assured  him  of  his  esteem,  told  him  that  the 
enquiry  was  simply  pro  j or  ma  ^  and  added 
that  the  whole  Church  was  indebted  to  him. 
All  the  same,  partly  owing  to  the  European 
political  situation,  partly  to  the  English 
divorce  question,  Charles  was  inclining 
more  and  more  to  the  conservative  side, 
and  issued  a  severe  Edict  for  the  repres- 
sion of  heresy  in  all  its  forms.  Erasmus 
could  not  blame  the  Emperor  and  the 
Archduke  Ferdinand,  for  they  were  good 
patrons  of  his  ;  but  he  lamented  the  death 
of  thousands  of  human  beings  which  he 
foresaw  would  be  probable,  and  he  was  not 
deceived.  It  was  not  so  much,  he  thought, 
a  question  as  to  what  heretics  deserved, 
but  as  to  what  was  expedient  for  Christen- 
dom. 

"  The  heretics  challenged  the  Church  and 
Emperor,  and  have  deserved  what  they  have 
got,  but  I  wish  this  war  to  end  ;  it  is  better  to 
cure  a  sick  man  than  to  kill  him.'' 

99 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

Erasmus  at  times,  in  his  eagerness  to 
check  the  abuse  of  pilgrimages  and 
miracles,  goes  beyond  the  limit  of 
accuracy  : 

^^  I  have  spoken  of  miracles.  The  Christian 
religion  does  not  require  miracles  at  the  present 
time,  and  there  are  none.'' 

No  Catholic  could  possibly  assent  to 
that  theory.  He  assists  at  the  wonder  of 
the  Mass  every  week,  possibly  every  day  ; 
besides  the  fact  that  there  are  many  well- 
authenticated  cases  of  miracles  from  the 
earliest  times  to  our  own  days.  The 
attitude  of  mind  which  regards  as  authen- 
tic every  miracle  up  to  the  death  of  St. 
John  and  every  subsequent  miraculous 
event  as  imaginary  is  most  strange  and 
illogical.  Erasmus's  stories  of  the  depravity 
of  monastic  life  are  the  result  of  his  own 
unhappy  experiences  at  Steyn,  which 
coloured  the  rest  of  his  life.  People  in 
good  faith,  doubtless,  have  often  quoted 
Erasmus  and  said  : 

"  Here  is  a  picture  of  monastic  life  on  the 
eve  of  the  Reformation,  and  it  is  the  work  of 
a  Catholic,  not  of  a  Lutheran ;  if  not  true, 
it  would  have  been  immediately  exposed." 

100 


HIS  TROUBLES  AND  LATER   TEARS 

Certainly  Erasmus  stands  in  a  wholly 
different  category  to  the  Commissioners 
of  Henry  VIII,  whose  reports  no  one 
would  heed  unless  he  were  already  com- 
mitted to  approval  of  the  dissolution  at 
any  cost,  and  it  is  not  possible  to 
ascribe  dishonesty  to  him.  The  explana- 
tion no  doubt  is  that  the  particular  in- 
stances which  Erasmus  records  wxre  true  ; 
most  regrettable,  certainly,  but  does  any- 
one suppose  that  every  monk  and  priest 
is  perfect  ?  If  such  stories  justified  sup- 
pression, where  would  suppression  stop? 
A  sort  of  parallel  are  the  stories,  very  one- 
sided, of  public  school  life  which  appear 
now  from  time  to  time.  Again,  the 
particular  instances  are  likely  enough  true 
and  most  regrettable  ;  but  no  case  could  be 
made  out  for  the  destruction  of  such 
and  such  a  school,  still  less — for  the 
argument  amounts  to  this — for  the 
suppression  of  every  public  school. 

With  the  outbreak  of  the  Peasants* 
Revolt  and  the  Anabaptist  movement,  ruin, 
social  and  moral,  seemed  imminent,  and  as 
the  sky  grew  darker  and  darker,  Erasmus 
became  more  serious  and  his  bright  nature 

lOI 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

became  eclipsed  ;  but  he  continued  his 
labours  at  scholarship  as  though  there  were 
no  world  convulsion  in  progress.  His  real 
convictions  are  contained  in  a  letter  of 
April  1529  to  Ludwig  Ber.^  Personal 
discomfort  and  difficulty  were  to  approach 
Erasmus  ever  closer.  We  have  seen  how 
he  had  been  living  in  semi-retirement  at 
Basel  ;  now  the  Lutheran  storm  came  to 
drive  him  from  his  quiet  retreat.  The 
reformers  had  been  gradually  growing  in 
strength,  and  when  they  found  themselves 
to  be  in  a  majority  on  the  city  council  the 
change  was  quickly  eifected.  Erasmus 
described,  in  a  letter  to  Pirkheimer,  the 
removal  of  altars,  pictures,  and  images  and 
the  general  defacing  of  the  churches, 
similar  to,  but  less  violent  than,  the  Gothic 
stupidity  shown  in  Edward  VI. 's  reign. 
Basel  almost  immediately  passed  beyond 
the  pure  Lutheran  phase.  Erasmus  had 
an   interview  with   Oecolampadius,^  who 

^  Printed  as  supplement  to  this  chapter. 

*  Johann  Hausschein,  or  Hussgen,  of  Wurzburg,  1482-153 1. 
He  read  law  at  Bologna  and  theology  at  Heidelberg,  where 
he  also  studied  Hebrew.  He  corresponded  with  Erasmus, 
and  at  first  was  disinclined  to  follow  the  Reformation  move- 
ment. Afterwards  he  became  its  chief  exponent  at  Basel 
and  Berne.    He  went  considerably  beyond  Luther. 

102 


HIS  TROUBLES  AND  LATER  TEARS 

desired  him  to  stay  ;  the  reformer  still 
hankered  after  the  great  scholar,  but  a 
heretic  town  was  no  suitable  abode  for 
him.  He  obtained  an  invitation  from  the 
Archduke  Ferdinand  to  go  to  Freiburg 
in  Breisgau,  a  town  which  was  then  within 
Austrian  territory.  Erasmus's  pensions,  ex- 
cept that  from  Warham,  were  not  paid  very 
regularly  ;  but  valuable  presents,  mostly 
in  the  form  of  plate,  from  his  admirers,  as 
well  ecclesiastics  as  laymen,  helped  him 
greatly  ;  his  expenses  at  Freiburg  seem  to 
have  been  higher  than  in  Basel.  Otherwise 
he  was  well  contented  with  the  change. 

In  England  matters  took  a  decided 
plunge  towards  schism.  Erasmus  hoped  and 
thought  that  the  supple  Campeggio  would 
arrange  the  difficulty  between  Henry  VHI 
and  the  Queen,  as  he  confided  to  Mount- 
joy;  but  the  matter  passed  on  to  the  decision 
of  the  Pope.  Clement  VH,  a  naturally 
weak  and  placable  man,  whose  political 
vision  was  often  obscured,  showed  himself 
the  true  successor  of  St.  Peter  when 
spiritual  matters  were  concerned.  Even 
to  please  the  King  of  England,  who,  up 
to  a  certain  point,  and  especially  in  the 

103 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

affair  of  Luther,  had  deserved  well  of  the 
Holy  See,  and  even  to  avert  a  very  prob- 
able schism,  the  Pope  could  not  give 
judgement  in  his  favour.  When  all  is  said, 
Henry,  blinded  by  his  desire  for  Anne 
Boleyn, turned  savagely  on  the  Pope, for  the 
sole  reason  that  Clement  could  not  possibly 
declare  his  marriage  to  be  null.  Erasmus 
never  gave  any  pronouncement  on  the 
subject,  but,  as  may  be  expected  from  his 
innate  love  of  peace  and  his  conviction 
that  personal  interests  are  nothing  when 
compared  with  the  fate  of  a  country  like 
England,  he  hoped  that,  at  any  rate, 
Katherine  would  give  way.  Erasmus  never 
did  anything  really  base  ;  but  to  main- 
tain peace  he  would  go  some  way  in  con- 
doning a  WTong,  and  he  lived  in  very 
difficult  times.  He  was  now  somewhat 
out  of  favour  at  the  Vatican  ;  the  Pope 
was  inclined  to  suspect  that  he  was  at  the 
bottom  of  the  welter,  spiritual,  moral,  and 
material,  in  which  Europe  was  involved, 
and  his  friends  at  Rome  lacked  influence 
or  energy,  so  he  complained  to  Sadolet 
early  in  1530.  The  summer  of  that  year 
saw  the  meeting  of  the  Diet  at  Augsburg 

104 


HIS  TROUBLES  AND  LATER  TEARS 

where  Melanchthon  presented  the  famous 
Confession,  by  far  the  most  conservative 
of  reformed  formulae.  Practically  nothing 
was  denied,  and  the  chief  fault  which  the 
Catholics  found  was  not  its  rejection  of  but 
its  omitting  to  state  the  Catholic  doctrine  ; 
in  deference  to  Erasmus,  Melanchthon  had 
even  left  out  all  reference  to  the  unfree  wilh 
It  is  a  much  more  Catholic  production  than 
Edward  VI's  Prayer  Book.  It  was  well 
that  the  violent  Luther  could  not  be 
present  ;  he  was  under  the  ban  of  the 
Empire;  but  even  so  all  attempts  at 
compromise  failed.  Charles  declared  that 
the  cities  must  conform  within  six  months, 
and  called  the  Lutherans  a  sect.  Some 
of  the  princes  were  annoyed  and  withdrew, 
Charles  was  equally  irritated,  and  an  Edict 
to  enforce  the  restoration  of  the  Catholic 
services  and  the  restitution  of  church 
property  was  issued.  We  must  remember 
that  if  ''the  sweet  and  reasonable"  Melanch- 
thon's  confession  was  tolerable,  the  acts 
of  many  of  its  professors  were  intolerable, 
as  may  be  judged  from  the  Edict.  The 
prescription  of  Catholic  services,  the 
seizure  of  Church  property,  the  destruc- 

105 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

tion  of  shrines  and  images,  the  forcible 
expulsion  of  monks  and  nuns,  were  going 
on  unchecked  in  many  places.  Erasmus 
thought  that,  whilst  the  ultra-conservative 
party  had  shown  over-eagerness  to  perse- 
cute, the  Lutherans,  as  a  wholly  upstart 
faction  and  a  minority,  had  been  far 
too  exacting.  Erasmus  was  probably 
mistaken  in  thinking  that  Charles's 
real  inclinations  were  for  toleration,  and 
attached  too  much  importance  to  his  own 
influence  with  the  Emperor.  That  may 
have  been  true  before  the  Reforma- 
tion showed  itself  in  the  form  of  anarchy 
and  fanaticism  ;  but  Charles's  naturally 
obstinate  character  was  hardening  under 
the  open  contempt  of  his  authority.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  owing  to  the  menace  of  the 
Turks  and  the  attitude  of  Henry  and 
Francis,  the  enforcement  of  the  Edict  was 
suspended.  With  relative  peace  in  Eu- 
rope Erasmus  began  to  experience  greater 
happiness.  Clement  VII  again  showed 
him  favour,  and  the  King  of  the  Romans 
desired  to  confer  on  him  some  important 
ecclesiastical  office.  His  state  of  health 
and  age,  for  a  man  who  had  passed  sixty 

io6 


HIS  TROUBLES  AND  LATER  TEARS 

was  at  our  period  very  old,  prevented  his 
acceptance,  and  Erasmus  had,  as  well,  a 
sentiment  that  matters  had  gone  too  far 
for  the  way  of  reason  and  moderation 
which  he  always  favoured.  Things,  al- 
though quieter  on  the  Continent,  were 
getting  worse  in  England  as  Henry  deve- 
loped his  anti-Papal  policy.  More  was 
dismissed  from  the  Chancellorship,  and 
heresy  made  great  strides :  although  a 
gentle  and  humane  man,  he  had  ever  been 
a  strong  opponent  of  error,  and  some  stern 
measures  had  been  carried  out  whilst  he 
held  the  seal. 

Warham  died,  and  in  him  Erasmus  lost 
one  of  his  best  friends  and  supporters  ; 
he  did  not  lose  his  pension,  for  Cranmer, 
the  new  Primate  and  the  last  Archbishop 
but  one  of  Canterbury,  albeit  a  heretic, 
continued  to  pay  it.  The  Act  of  Succes- 
sion was  passed,  and  More  and  Fisher 
having  refused  to  swear  to  it,  were  com- 
mitted to  the  Tower,  1534.  Clement's 
unhappy  reign  ended  soon  after,  and 
with  the  election  of  Paul  III  better  times 
dawned.  He  had  long  been  in  favour  of 
a  council  for  reform  and  had  intended  to 

107 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

summon  one  as  soon  as  possible.  The 
times  were  not  favourable  to  moderation  : 
the  Anabaptist  rising,  which  Erasmus 
regarded  as  the  direct  work  of  the  devil, 
had  been  stamped  out  at  Munster,  Paul, 
however,  was  determined  on  the  council 
and  appointed  new  Cardinals,  amongst 
whom  he  wished  to  include  Erasmus  and 
Blessed  John  Fisher.  The  Pope  knew  him 
for  a  holy  and  learned  man,  a  partisan  of 
moderate  reform,  and  a  friend  of  Erasmus  ; 
he  could  have  given  no  better  proof  of  his 
sincerity  in  the  matter  of  reform.  He  had 
even  tried  to  come  to  some  understanding 
with  Henry  VHI,  and  must  have  been 
ignorant,  strange  as  it  seems,  of  the  fact 
that  the  bishop  was  in  the  Tower  ;  other- 
wise he  would  not  have  contemplated  an 
act  which  would  arouse  the  tyrant's  rage. 
Meantime,  Erasmus  fell  seriously  ill  ; 
he  was  advised  to  try  a  change  of  air,  and 
returned  to  Basel,  though  Freiburg  was 
obviously  the  more  healthy  place  of  the 
two.  Here  he  received  the  great  shock 
of  the  news  of  the  martyrdom  of  Blessed 
Thomas  More  and  Blessed  John  Fisher, 
his  dearest  friends,  and  seemed  for  some 

io8 


HIS  TROUBLES  AND  LATER  TEARS 

time  to  be  unable  to  credit  it.  Erasmus 
had  known  Henry  only  in  his  younger 
days,  when  he  appeared  as  a  brilliant 
patron  of  arts,  soldier  and  statesman,  and 
could  not  believe  that  he  had  fallen  into 
the  horrible  ways  in  which  he  finished  his 
reign.  His  health  grew  steadily  worse, 
and  it  was  clear  that  he  was  never  likely 
to  leave  Basel,  but  even  in  August,  1 53  5,  he 
spoke  of  an  early  return  to  Freiburg  and 
of  his  intention  not  to  remain  in  the  Swiss 
city.  The  fate  of  the  bishop  and  of  the 
ex-Chancellor  was  only  too  clearly  con- 
firmed, and  Erasmus  wrote  : 

"  They  were  the  wisest  and  most  holy  of 
Englishmen.  By  the  loss  of  More  I  feci  to  have 
myself  died ;  we  had  only  one  soul  between 
us.'' 

If  a  man,  as  is  often  alleged,  can  be 
judged  from  his  friends,  Erasmus  must  take 
a  very  high  place.  All  his  friends  and 
correspondents  were  men  of  distinction 
and  worth.  Some  indeed  fell  into  heresy, 
and  with  them  he  parted  ;  but  none  of  them 
were  low  or  futile,  and  amongst  his  few 
intimate  friends  we  find  the  names  of  the 
greatest  and  most  saintly  men  of  the  day. 

109 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

Erasmus  might  have  had  the  red  hat 
at  any  time.  Paul  was  most  anxious  to 
confer  it,  if  he  had  wished  ;  but  his 
ambitions,  even  his  interest  in  life,  were 
gone.  Within  a  year  he  was  dead,  July 
Iith~i2th,  1536.  He  died  in  loneliness 
attended  only,  it  would  seem,  by  a  Portu- 
guese friend  and  scholar,  Damiao  de 
Goes,^  and  was  buried  in  the  desolated 
cathedral. 

Erasmus  was  unfortunate  at  the  end  in 
the  sense  in  which  many  illustrious 
men  have  outlived  their  popularity.  If 
he  had  died  after  the  triumph  of  the 
Liberu7n  Arbitrtum^  he  would  have  gone 
down  to  posterity  not  only  as  one  of  the 
greatest  scholars  of  history,  but  as  one  of 
the  great  champions  of  Catholicism.  He 
would  have  incurred  the  undying  hostility 
of  Protestants,  it  is  true ;  but  he  has 
achieved  that  more  or  less  as  it  is,  and  he 
would  have  avoided  the  suspicions  with 
which  many  Catholics  at  the  time  and  after 

*  He  was  born  about  1500  and  died  in  old  age.  Sadolet 
asked  him  to  attempt  the  reconciliation  of  the  Wittenberg 
reformers.  Goes  fell  under  the  suspicion  of  the  Inquisition 
in  Portugal,  and  was  sent  to  do  penance  at  Batalha,  but  he 
died  at  his  own  house. 

no 


HIS  TROUBLES  AND  LATER  TEARS 

regarded  him.  There  are  some  grounds 
for  these  suspicions.  It  was  unfortunate 
that  he  died  in  a  heretic  town  without  the 
offices  of  the  Church,  but  that  was  not  his 
fault.  His  intention,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
to  leave  Basel ;  but  he  was  anticipated  by 
his  fatal  illness.  To  the  end  he  protested 
most  dutifully — servilely  a  French  Protes- 
tant historian  calls  it — his  complete  sub- 
mission to  the  Holy  See.  His  refusal  to 
accept  the  high  honour  which  Paul  HI 
designed  for  him  was  made  on  perfectly 
genuine  grounds.  His  health  was  gone, 
and  his  end  not  far  distant.  The  judicial 
murder  of  his  dearest  friends  had  robbed 
his  life  of  further  interest.  Such  an 
attitude  may  not  be  strictly  tenable  ; 
there  are  always  interests  left  ;  but  it  is 
hard  to  blame  such  a  welcome  proof 
of  his  capacity  for  affection — a  capacity 
which  many  of  his  acts  and  writings  would 
otherwise  leave  in  doubt.  In  his  modera- 
tion he  was  much  in  advance  of  his  times, 
and  to  be  in  advance  of  one's  times  does 
not  make  for  material  happiness.  Eras- 
mus's influence  on  the  course  of  the 
political  and   religious  events  of  his  day 

III 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

was    slight.     Dr.    Karl    Hartfelder    well 
writes  : 

"  Das  Tragische  seines  Leben  liegt  nur  darin, 
dass  sein  aushalten  unter  der  Katholischen 
Fahne  gerade  bei  den  Anhangern  der  strengen 
Katholischen  Richtung  keinen  Dank  gefunden 
hat.  Von  Aleander  bis  herunter  auf  DoUinger 
und  dessen  Nachtreten  escheint  Erasmus  als 
der  Typus  frivoler  skepsis  und  charakterloser 
Unzuverlassigkeit."  ^ 

It  is  not  necessary  to  labour  his  influence 
on  the  future  of  learning.  Erasmus  was 
constitutionally  and  intellectually  incap- 
able of  leading  a  popular  movement  ;  in 
fact,  he  despised  all  such  and  the  facile 
enthusiasms  which  attends  those  move- 
ments. His  tastes  were  aristocratic  ;  he 
believed  in  an  aristocracy  of  intellect  and 
had  a  decided  leaning  towards  an  aris- 
tocracy of  birth.  His  mind,  in  this  respect 
like  Pascal's,  whom  he  resembles  in  no 
other   single   way,   was   of  an    incurably 

*  "  The  tragedy  of  his  life  lies  wholly  in  this,  that  his 
simple  perseverance  under  the  Catholic  banner  gained  him 
no  thanks  from  the  followers  of  the  strong  Catholic  party. 
From  Aleander  onwards,  right  up  to  Dollinger  and  his 
successors,  Erasmus  is  portrayed  as  the  typical  frivolous 
sceptic  and  man  of  characterless  uncertainty." 

112 


HIS  TROUBLES  AND  LATER  TEARS 

sceptic  type,  and  he  lived  in  times  when 
such  an  attitude  was  most  easily  justified 
and  produced.  In  all  times  of  upheaval, 
strife,  and  misery,  the  greater  minds  show 
this  tendency  :  nothing  is  worth  struggling 
for  ;  the  world  is  literally  very  evil  ;  take 
refuge  in  the  things  of  the  intellect.  With 
the  exception  of  his  works  on  the  Fathers 
and  the  New  Testament  his  writings  were 
critical  and  destructive  ;  even  when  he 
entered  the  lists  on  behalf  of  the  Church, 
he  annihilated  Luther's  system  rather  than 
defended  the  threatened  and  vital  doctrines. 
In  modern  times  Erasmus  has  more  than 
come  into  his  own  :  where  controversy 
between  the  forces  of  all  that  is  best  in 
conservatism  and  in  innovation  is  con- 
cerned, the  Erasmian  method  is  generally 
approved,  and  there  are  few  who  would 
not  agree  with  his  sentiment  that  warfare 
and  slaughter  for  the  sake  of  opinion  are 
futile.  At  the  same  time  Erasmus,  and 
most  modern  thinkers,  would  hold  that 
some  opinions  are  so  pernicious  that  in 
the  interests  of  humanity  they  must  be 
stamped  out.  He  had  no  doubts  about  the 
Anabaptists  ;  he  would  have  as  little  about 

H  113 


ERJSMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

some  of  our  modern  pests.  The  world's 
debt  to  Erasmus  is  very  great.  When 
all  is  said  he  was  a  ieau  genie,  a  loyal 
friend,  humane  and  generous,  a  man  of 
surpassing  intellectual  powers.  Is  it  any 
wonder  that,  amongst  so  much  that  is  true 
and  noble,  we  find  frailties  and  human 
weaknesses  ? 


Erasmus  to  Ludwig  Ber^  April  1529 

"  God  alone  knows  how  the  end  will  come. 
We  are  being  punished,  it  seems,  for  our  sins. 
No  annoyance  will,  however,  withdraw  me 
from  the  Church,  but  at  times  I  have  almost 
felt  provoked  to  it.  I  will  not  assail  the  mother 
by  whom  I  was  washed  at  the  font  and  fed  with 
the  Sacrament.  To  avenge  a  distinct  wrong 
I  will  not  imperil  my  soul.  One  can  now 
understand  how  TertuUian  and  Wiclif  were 
driven  into  schism  by  malicious  attacks.  I  will 
not  be  so  driven,  although  the  attack  made  upon 
me  is  most  improvoked.  All  my  efforts,  and 
crime,  if  so  they  consider  it,  have  been  to 
promote  true  learning.  It  is  true  that  I 
wished  monks  to  remember  their  rule,  and 
thought  that  the  study  of  Scripture  and  the 
Fathers  was  preferable  to  the  exclusive  pursuit 
^         of   the   scholastics.     I    ever   hoped    that    the 

114 


HIS  TROUBLES  AND  LATER  TEARS 

Popes  and  Cardinals  might  live  in  manner 
nearer  to  that  of  the  Apostles,  but  I  never 
desired  them  harm  or  abolition.  As  to  the  dis- 
putations about  the  manner  of  the  Presence, 
it  is  incredible  that  Christ  would  so  long  have 
allowed  the  Church  to  be  in  error  on  such  a 
matter.  [What  Erasmus  means  is  the  very 
practical  argument  that,  after  1,500  years  of 
belief  in  the  Real  and  Substantial  Presence,  it 
is  very  improbable  that  a  few  men  should  be 
inspired  to  discover  its  falsity.]  The  Lutheran 
theory  that  any  one  person  is  as  qualified  in 
himself,  apart  from  ecclesiastical  order,  as  any 
other  to  ordain,  absolve,  and  consecrate  is 
sheer  lunacy.  [Luther  held,  as  his  own  opinion, 
that  wherever  literally  the  two  or  three  were 
gathered  there  was  the  Church  in  all  its  power. 
This  theory  does  not  figure  in  the  Confession.] 
At  the  same  time  it  is  of  no  use  for  monks  and 
prelates  to  think  that  they  can  stop  the  spread 
of  error  by  mere  shouting,  nor  will  they  be 
able  to  re-establish  their  old  authority  over  the 
mass  of  the  people.  Some  men  are  wicked, 
but  that  is  no  reason  to  give  up  our  belief  in 
the  Church." 

To  Warham,   Faber,  and   Tunstall   he 
wrote  in  a  very  similar  strain. 


"S 


Chapter  V 


THE     FRIENDS      AND      CORRE- 
SPONDENTS  OF  ERASMUS 

%f^P?mM^^MVS'S  early  visit 
%^^^^J^^ ^o  Oxford,  14985  was  of 
importance  for  the  fact 
that,  short  though  it  was, 
in  that  town  and  in 
^^  ^^M  ,.^^  London  he  made  his  best 
^^S?'x/\y\friends,  and  acquired  an 
impression  which  to  some  extent  influenced 
his  whole  life.  He  was  absorbing  ideas 
amongst  the  choicest  spirits  of  the  day, 
a  mode  of  life  very  different  from  his 
strenuous  and  troubled  later  years.  It  is 
far  from  clear  who  were  present  at  the 
evening  meals  and  discussions,  which  were 
presided  over  by  Charnock,  Prior  of  St. 
Mary's  College,  where  Frewin  Hall  now 
stands  ;  our  information  is  confused  and 
fragmentary.  Colet  and  Grocyn  were 
certainly  present.  More  and  Linacre  per- 
haps, and  Wolsey  possibly.  We  have  two 
specimens  of  these  discussions.  One  was 
on  the  subject  of  Cain  and  Abel,  and  it 
treated  in  the  new  Platonic  manner  then 

116 


HIS  FRIENDS  AND  CORRESPONDENTS 

in  vogue  at  the  Florentine  Academy.  As 
the  discussion  waxed  warm,  Erasmus  told 
them  a  myth  concerning  the  expulsion 
from  Eden  and  a  device  of  Cain  to  obtain 
good  wheat-seed,  which  in  Plato's  style  he 
asked  them  to  accept  as  true.  As  an 
improvisation  it  is  remarkable,  and  we  find 
nothing  else  like  it  in  any  extant  writings 
of  Erasmus  ;  at  the  same  time  it  could 
hardly  have  been  composed  beforehand,  for 
there  seems  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
Erasmus  had  any  idea  that  the  discussion 
would  turn  on  Cain. 

The  other,  a  far  more  serious  subject, 
was  on  the  Agony  in  the  Garden.  This 
was  disputed  between  Erasmus  and  Colet. 
Erasmus  held  the  common  view  that  it  was 
the  dread  of  the  coming  tortures  which 
caused  Our  Lord's  Agony  ;  in  the  sense 
in  which  human  nature  would  shrink  from 
such  a  prospect,  especially  when  the  cer- 
tainty of  it  was  beyond  a  doubt.  In  all 
which  individuals  may  dread,  there  is  a 
possibility  present  to  the  mind,  even  if 
very  improbable,  that  the  worst  may  be 
averted  ;  but  Our  Lord  knew  for  certain 
all  that  was  to  happen.     Colet,   on   the 

117 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

contrary,  considered  that  it  was  the  fate 
of  the  Jews  caused  by  their  rejection  of 
Himself  that  was  the  primary  cause  of  the 
Agony.  Each  maintained  his  opinion, 
but  Erasmus  was  somewhat  shaken  in  his 
certainty.  It  was  at  Oxford,  too,  that 
Erasmus  first  got  the  idea  of  the  revived 
learning  being  used  to  aid  Christian 
scholarship.  It  was  Colet  who  first  showed 
him  how  Greek  could  be  put  to  other 
uses  than  the  pure  scholarship  of  which  the 
early  or  Italian  Renaissance  alone  took 
count.  This  influence  may  be  easily 
traced  in  Erasmus's  New  Testament  and 
his  editions  of  the  Fathers.  His  best 
editorial  achievements  are  connected  with 
those  subjects,  and  not  with  the  texts  of 
the  classics.  His  New  Testament  was  a 
somewhat  hurried  piece  of  work,  nor  was 
it  based  upon  the  best  MSS.,  which  even 
then  were  accessible  ;  but  it  is  remarkable 
for  being  the  first  Greek  text  which  was 
widely  diffused.  Moreover,  Erasmus,  and 
with  him  Sadolet  and  Colet,  attempted  to 
give  the  actual  meaning  of  the  words  in  a 
philological  sense  rather  than  with  a  view 
to    doctrinal    or    controversial    purposes. 

Ii8 


HIS  FRIENDS  AND  CORRESPONDENTS 

His  New  Testament  would  seem  a  very 
poor  and  inaccurate  version  to-day.  Far 
more  noteworthy  are  his  editions  of  the 
Fathers.  The  text  of  St.  Jerome  had  for 
some  time  been  exercising  men's  minds  ; 
but  it  was  not  until  Erasmus  undertook  it 
that  a  successful  edition  appeared.  The 
texts  of  many  other  Fathers,  Latin,  such  as 
St.  Hilary,  Augustine,  and  Ambrose,  Greek 
such  as  St.  Basil,  Irenaeus,  and  Athanasius, 
were  much  improved  by  his  criticisms 
and  in  his  careful  editions.  Erasmus 
regarded  the  study  of  the  Fathers  as  an 
absolute  necessity  ;  yet,  as  we  have  seen, 
he  would  not  pin  his  faith  to  every  state- 
ment of  each  and  all,  for  some  are  contra- 
dictory, in  the  manner  in  which  some 
divines  were  wont,  he  considered,  to  do. 
Furthermore,  he  did  not  hold  St.  Thomas 
in  the  contempt  w^hich  was  then  general  in 
the  new  world  of  learning.  On  the  con- 
trary, Erasmus  saw  that  much  had  been 
most  clearly  and  truly  expounded  by  him, 
and  that  to  have  formed  a  consistent  system 
and  one  capable  of  answering  all  difficulties 
was  a  great  achievement,  whatever  might 
be  thought  of  its  power  to  convince.     He 

119 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

actually  aroused  Colet's  anger  by  praising 
the  Aurea  Catena^  for  the  excellent  dean 
had  a  positive  hatred  of  the  great  Scholastic 
and  his  works — a  proof  how  many  a  good 
man  has  been  blinded  by  prejudice  or 
dazzled  by  a  new  but  not  necessarily 
infallible  light. 

The  Moriae  Encomium^  perhaps  the  most 
popular,  and  certainly  the  best  known,  of 
Erasmus's  writings,  was  thrown  off  in  a 
moment  of  exuberance  of  spirits,  and  the 
author  would  be  surprised  to  know  of  the 
many  editions,  commentaries  and  explan- 
atory works  which  have  been  written  on 
the  subject.  It  is  genuinely  humorous 
and  delicate  :  the  trenchant  satire,  devoid 
alike  of  brutality  or  coarseness,  and  without 
malice,  render  it  very  unlike  other  con- 
temporaneous squibs.  Leo  X  was  vastly 
amused  by  it.  .  As  everyone  knows,  it 
satirized  the  scholastic  divines  and  the 
mendicant  orders,  as  well  as  the  gross 
ignorance,  even  of  Latin,  which  charac- 
terized some  of  the  theologians.  Secular 
courts  do  not  escape  either.  It  is  difficult 
to  regard  it  as  an  ejffort  to  turn  the  con- 
temporary   theology    into    ridicule :      it 

120 


HIS  FRIENDS  AND  CORRESPONDENTS 

attacked,  not  individuals  as  individuals, 
but  types  of  mind,  the  blank  obscurantism, 
and  the  attitude  of  those  who  refused 
to  see  in  the  revival  of  letters  anything 
but  evil.  It  was  also  in  praise  of  More, 
and  it  is  important  to  remember  that  there 
was  no  substantial  difFerence  between 
Erasmus's  views  in  the  Encomium  and 
those  of  More  himself,  as  is  very  clearly 
apparent  in  the  letter  which  Sir  Thomas 
addressed  to  the  University  of  Oxford, 
The  appearance  of  Moriae  Encomium 
had  dissipated  the  regard  felt  for  Erasmus 
at  the  universities,  more  particularly  at 
Oxford,  and  the  outcry  was  loud  and  long. 
Both  universities  forbade  the  students 
to  buy  or  read  any  of  Erasmus's  works,  not 
only  the  Encomium^  and  felt  themselves 
confirmed  in  their  belief  that  Greek 
learning  was  the  mother  of  all  mischief. 
Blessed  Thomas  More  censured  all  this 
in  his  letter,  which  we  have  already 
noticed,  by  remarking  that  Greek  needed 
no  defence  ;  that  all  the  best  works  of 
philosophy  and  theology,  including  the 
New  Testament,  were  written  in  Greek  ; 
and   that,  so  far  as  philosophy  was  con- 

121 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

cerned,  the  Latins  were  insignificant. 
Nevertheless,  the  battle  at  Oxford  between 
Greeks  and  Trojans,  as  they  called  them- 
selves, probably  because  the  upholders  of 
Latin  really  believed  that  the  Trojans  were 
the  ancestors  of  the  Romans  (Vergil  in  the 
Middle  Ages  was  regarded  as  semi- 
inspired),  continued  to  rage,  and  Oxford 
was,  it  seems,  overwhelmingly  Trojan  in 
sympathies.  Later,  in  reply  to  some 
young  theologian,  apparently  a  monk,  who 
wrote  attacking  Erasmus  and  warning 
More  against  his  friendship,  he  replied 
very  sharply  : 

"  Erasmus  does  not  ridicule  your  ceremonies, 
but  only  the  superstitious  use  of  them.  There 
is  no  fear  of  the  devil  getting  hold  of  you  if  you 
merely  alter  your  dress  :  fear  rather  to  lie  and 
commit  crimes.'' 

Sir  Thomas  went  on  with  a  concrete 
instance  of  crime  and  superstition,  simi- 
lar to  those  to  which  Erasmus  alluded  in 
his  strictures  on  pilgrimages.  It  sounds 
wholly  incredible  and  from  any  other 
source  but  More  we  should  have  great 
difficulty  in  believing  it.     As  it  is  it  goes 

122    *• 


HIS  FRIENDS  AND  CORRESPONDENTS 

a  long  way  to  justify  the  Mor/ae.  In  con- 
nection with  the  unfounded  beliefs  about 
the  Trojans,  we  may  notice  Polydore 
Vergil,  who  settled  in  England  and  brought 
his  Italian  acuteness  to  bear  on  some  points 
of  our  national  history.  It  was  he  who 
first  exploded  the  Brute  myth  and  most  of 
Geoffrey  of  Monmouth's  tales  and  told  the 
truth  about  Ste,  Jeanne  Dare.  The  Julius 
dialogues  further  excited  the  conservative 
spirits  about  Erasmus,  more  especially  the 
famous  or  notorious  yultus  Exclusus^  which 
was  printed  in  Paris,  and  even  put  on  the 
stage,  where  for  political  reasons  it  enjoyed 
a  marked  success.  This  was  after  Leo*s 
accession,  when  peace  was  restored  between 
France  and  the  Papal  States.  Its  point 
lies  in  a  discussion — wrangle  would  be  a 
better  word — between  Julius  II  and  St. 
Peter  over  the  Pope's  claim  to  be  admitted 
to  heaven  :  St.  Peter  rejects  him  on  the 
ground  of  his  warlike  habits  and  for 
other  more  discreditable  reasons.  Erasmus 
denied,  at  least  implicitly,  the  authorship. 
It  has  been  attributed,  without  much 
reason,  to  T.  Andrelini,  who  had  no  motive 
whatever    in    not    claiming    to    be    the 

123 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

author.^  Certainly  Erasmus  did  not,  as  a 
rule,  write  anonymously,  and  Leo  himself 
regarded  the  authorship  as  unproved.  Sir 
Thomas  Moreaccepted  Erasmus'  denial  but 
thought  that  in  any  case,  it  did  not  matter 
much,  Campeggio,  on  the  other  hand, 
had  no  doubt  that  Erasmus  was  responsible 
for  it,  and  expostulated  with  him.  His 
hatred  of  war  and  political  intrigues  and 
his  dislike  of  a  fighting  Pope,  which  he 
regarded  as  unapostolic,  to  say  the  least, 
combined  with  the  style  of  Latin  employed, 
make  the  authorship  of  Erasmus  very 
probable.  Mr.  Allen  and  the  best  modern 
authorities  regard  it  as  almost  certain. 
There  is  no  real  harm  in  it,  and  it  is  quite 
in  accordance  with  the  political  skits  of  the 
day.  We  should  base  our  objections  to  it, 
and  to  most  other  contemporary  politico- 
religious  lampoons,  not  so  much  on  the 
fact  that  a  Pope  was  caricatured,  but  on  the 
introduction  of  sacred  matters  into  a 
squib  which  was  merely  intended  to  raise 
a   laugh. 

*  Some  have  in  it  seen  the  work  of  Hutten.  The  most 
obvious  thing  about  it  is  the  bitter  French  party  spirit. 
This  tells  against  the  authorship  of  Erasmus,  and  still  more 
against  that  of  Hutten. 

124     » 


HIS  FRIENDS  AND  CORRESPONDENTS 

The  Colloquies  owe  their  perennial  in- 
terest to  the  graphic  pictures  which  they 
give  of  the  life  and  manners  of  the  day, 
portraying  the  extreme  ranges  of.  which 
human  interest  is  capable.  They  are 
entirely  personal  experiences,  and  are  no 
doubt  substantially  accurate  ;  but  they 
were  composed  over  a  long  period  and  were 
written  up  for  publication  from  notes,  or 
possibly  from  some  sort  of  diary  which 
Erasmus  may  have  kept.  The  pictures 
deal  with  all  countries  except  Spain, 
Portugal,  and  Scandinavia,  and  with  all 
sorts  of  folks,  from  Cardinals  and  noblemen 
to  innkeepers,  condottieri  and  downright 
rogues.  They  are  wholly  free  from  the 
querulous  tone  W'hich  is  sometimes  to  be 
found  in  Erasmus's  correspondence,  and 
show  a  whole-hearted  sympathy  wdth 
humanity  under  every  shape  and  form. 
Some  of  his  letters,  and  notably  the  familiar 
one  which  describes  in  tragi-comical  style 
his  journey  and  sufferings  between  Basel 
and  Louvain,  seem  almost  as  if  they  were 
meant  to  have  formed  part  of  the  Col- 
loquies. 

More  controversial  than  the  New  Testa- 

I2S 


ERJSMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

ment  which  was  under  the  special  patronage 
of  the  Pope  were  Erasmus's  Paraphrases. 
These  w^ere  finished  and  appeared  1524. 
These  Paraphrases  were  a  sort  of  Latin 
commentary  on  the  different  books  of  the 
New  Testament.  They  were  very  variously 
judged,  but  were  received  with  enthusiasm 
by  many  of  the  clergy,  and  in  particular 
made  a  good  impression  in  England, 
The  praise  accorded  to  them  later  by 
Nicholas  Udall,  Katherine  Parr,  Edward, 
and  Elizabeth  does  not  tell  much  in  their 
favour  ;  but  Cardinal  Grimani,  to  whom 
the  first  paraphase,  that  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans,  was  dedicated,  was  pleased,  and 
it  was  at  the  request  of  Cardinal  Schinner 
that  Erasmus  went  on  to  the  Gospel 
according  to  St.  Matthew.  Erasmus  had 
many  meetings  with  this  famous  diplomat  ^ ; 
their  esteem  was  mutual,  and  to  him  was 
dedicated  the  Paraphrase  of  St.   James's 

1  Schinner  was  a  native  of  the  Valais  and  Bishop  and 
Cardinal  of  Sion.  His  influence  over  the  Swiss  was  ever 
directed  against  France  :  in  England  his  anti- French  policy 
was  equally  active.  The  "  Oratib  ad  excitandum  contra 
Galliam  Britannos,"  extremely  unfair  to  Louis  XII,  was  a 
skilful  appeal  to  the  then  anti- French  prejudices  of  England. 
He  died  somewhat  discredited. 

126 


HIS  FRIENDS  AND  CORRESPONDENTS 

Epistle,  In  the  end  only  the  Apocalypse 
was  left  untouched.  The  paraphrase  of  the 
Galatians  was  inscribed  to  Antoine  de  la 
Marck,  abbot  of  Beaulieu  Verdun;  Al- 
most alone  of  Erasmus's  friends  this  prelate, 
both  as  a  man  and  a  priest,  had  a  bad 
reputation.  The  Paraphrases  were  wholly 
suited  for  the  learned,  but  less  so  for  the 
vulgar.  At  that  time  there  was  so  much 
inflammable  material  lying  about  that 
works  harmless,  and  even  useful  in  them- 
selves, were  apt  to  set  the  whole  of  it 
ablaze,  and  people  seemed  to  lose  all  sense 
and  moderation  when  fired  with  a  few 
texts  of  the  Bible  in  their  newer  form. 

Erasmus's  varied  talents  and  the  many 
sides  of  his  genius  can,  however,  only  be 
completely  realized  from  his  correspond- 
ence. There,  far  more  than  in  his  actual 
works,  he  is  revealed  to  us.  There  is 
moderation  and  common  sense,  and  dislike 
of  violence  in  controversy,  even  with  those 
with  whom  he  is  least  in  agreement  ; 
there  are  exceptions  to  this  moderation,  but 
only  under  circumstances  of  great  annoy- 
ance. Some  of  his  letters,  more  particu- 
larly those  which  were  addressed  to  his 

127 


ERJSMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

influential  patrons  and  to  men  whom  he 
desired  to  enlist  on  his  side,  were  doubtless 
conceived  in  a  tone  of  exaggeration  and 
flattery  ;  we  have  already  remarked 
instances  which  seem  to  contradict  his 
love  of  plain  speaking  and  independence 
of  character.  Such  was  the  fashion  of 
the  day,  and  Erasmus,  if  intellectually 
in  advance  of  his  times,  was  not  so  with 
regard  to  the  foibles  and  fashions.  In 
most  cases,  too,  this  rather  irritating  style 
was  the  result  of  a  real  affection  and  respect 
for  those  to  whom  he  was  writing.  The 
extraordinary  diversity  of  his  correspon- 
dents may  be  gathered  from  a  short  list 
of  names.  Popes  and  Cardinals,  More, 
Fisher,  Colet,  Warham,  Tunstall,  the 
Elector  of  Mainz,  the  Prince  of  Carpi, 
the  Duke  in  Saxony,  and, on  the  other  side, 
Hermann  Von  Weid,  Archbishop  and 
Elector  of  Cologne,  afterwards  a  Luther- 
an, Luther  himself,  Melanchthon,  Ulrich 
von     Hutten,     Capito,^     Oecolampadius, 

1  Wolfgang  Kopfel  of  Haguenau.  He  helped  Erasmus  with 
his  New  Testament,  but  declared  for  the  Reformation  1523. 
He  and  Bucer,  one  of  the  chief  inspirers  of  the  Church  of 
England,  drew  up  the  Tetrapolitan  Confession.  Erasmus 
parted  company  with  him. 

128 


HIS  FRIENDS  AND  CORRESPONDENTS 

Zwingll,  Myconius.^  To  all  these  extra- 
ordinarily dissimilar  persons,  to  mention 
no  others,  Erasmus  wrote  freely  and 
without  restraint.  His  correspondents,  to 
many  of  whom  he  wrote  very  frequently, 
ran  into  hundreds  if  we  argue  from  those 
letters  the  origin  and  destination  of  which 
are  uncertain.  All  this,  too,  was  quite 
apart  from  his  editing  and  other  literary 
work,  and  gives  some  idea  of  the  energy 
which  was  contained  in  so  frail  a  body. 
Death  and  his  own  failing  powers  reduced 
the  number  of  his  correspondents  towards, 
the  end  of  his  life,  and  he  had  dropped 
all  connection  with  the  reformers  whose 
names  we  have  just  noticed.  Melanchthon 
alone,  who  receded  further  and  further 
from  Erasmus's  position,  he  continued  to 
regard  with  esteem,  much  as  he  regretted 
his  openly  taking  a  part,  and  a  leading 
part,  in  the  schism,  from  which  he  in  vain 
endeavoured  to  dissuade  him.  Erasmus's 
correspondence  with  Johann  Caesarius  in 

*  Oswald  Geisshiisler,  one  of  the  very  few  reformed  who 
came  from  Luzern.  He  lived  at  Zurich  on  intimate  terms 
with  Zwingli,  and  finally  became  pastor  at  St.  Albans, 
Basel.  This  ended  his  and  Erasmus's  friendship.  The  name 
Myconius  was  apparently  given  him  by  Erasmus. 

I  129 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

1 517  is  interesting.  He  was  writing  of 
the   'Eptstolae  Obscurorum  Vif'orum  : 

"  Epistolae  magnopere  mihi  displicebant. 
Delectare  potuisset  facecia  nisi  nimium  offen- 
disset  exemplum.  Mihi  placent  lusus  sed 
citra  cujusquam  contumeliam."  ^ 

He  added  that  it  was  bad  enough  to  be 
suspected  of  the  authorship  of  Julius 
Exclusus^  without  being  credited  with  that 
of  the  Epistolae.  This  Caesar ius,  who  was 
a  native  of  Julich,  had  migrated  to  Paris 
and  was  in  many  ways  akin  to  Erasmus 
in  spirit,  and,  in  spite  of  being  friendly  up 
to  a  certain  point  with  some  of  the  re- 
formers, like  him,  remained  true  to  the 
Church, 

We  may  now  turn  to  a  few  other  friends 
of  Erasmus  less  famous  than  those  whom 
we  have  come  across,  but  still  of  interest 
as  helping  to  illustrate  Erasmus's  nature. 

To  Martin  Lypsius  he  wrote,  1518,  to 

1  "The  Efistles  greatly  displease  me.  The  wit  might  have 
amused  me,  only  the  precedent  was  likely  to  cause  such 
scandal.  A  good  jest  is  pleasing  to  me,  but  not  ribaldry." 
Ulrich  von  Hutten,  who  was  mainly  responsible  for  the 
Epistolae,  was  in  Italy  at  the  time  of  their  publication. 
Crotus  Rubeanus  (Johann  J^ger  of  Dornheim)  had  probably 
a  good  deal  to  do  with  the  first  part. 

130 


HIS  FRIENDS  AND  CORRESPONDENTS 

vindicate  his  New  Testament  from  the 
attacks  of  Edward  Lee,  afterwards  Arch- 
bishop of  York,  perhaps  his  most  deter- 
mined foe  in  England.  Lypsius  was  one 
of  Erasmus's  most  intimate  friends.  He 
was  a  native  of  Brussels,  and  a  scholar  and 
theologian  of  repute.  He  gave  Er;!  -mus 
very  considerable  help  in  the  Basel  edition 
of  St,  Augustine  and  St.  Ambrose.  He, 
too,  was  perfectly  orthodox.  Another 
much-favoured  correspondent  was  Johann 
Turszo,  a  Hungarian,  and  Bishop  of 
Breslau.  He  was  a  great  patron  of 
learning,  if  somewhat  secularly  minded 
for  a  bishop.  Luther  hoped  to  draw  him 
to  the  side  of  reform,  but,  largely  through 
the  influence  of  Erasmus,  he  never  went 
beyond  an  interest  in  classical  learning. 
With  Johann  Meyer  (Eck)  Erasmus's 
relations  were  not  so  good.  Eck  was  in 
early  days  wholly  on  the  progressive  side, 
but  after  the  actual  outbreak  of  the  Refor- 
mation he  was  the  untiring  opponent  of 
Luther  and  others.  Erasmus  and  Eck 
quarrelled,  but  there  was  a  reconciliation. 
With  so  much  in  common  it  seems  as 
though  they  ought  to  have  been  in  close 

131 


ERASMUS    OF  ROTTERDAM 

sympathy  ;  but  Eck,  whether  as  a  partisan 
of  reform  or  upholder  of  the  past,  was 
rather  too  violent  for  Erasmus's  taste. 

Johann  Wildenauer  of  Eger  was  another 
who  for  a  time  was  attracted  to  Luther, 
but  he  fiercely  attacked  the  De  Servo 
Arhitrio.  He  was  an  admirer  and  follower 
of  Erasmus  as  a  man  and  as  a  thinker. 

A  very  different  type  of  mind  was  Jonas 
Kock  of  Nordhausen  (Justus  Jonas),  a 
humanist  and  ardent  admirer  of  Erasmus, 
but  the  Wittenberg  influence  proved  too 
strong,  Erasmus  in  vain  strove  to  hold 
him  back,  for  they  had  a  mutual  affection, 
by  direct  appeal  to  his  scholarship  and  by 
drawing  a  picture  of  the  Church  reformed 
in  discipline — reform  combined  w4th 
orthodoxy.  This  was  ever  the  ideal  in 
the  mind  of  Erasmus.  Kock,  however, 
married  and  definitely  joined  the  Evan- 
gelical party  and  finally  quarrelled  with 
and  condemned  Erasmus,  1527.  This  is 
a  good  instance  of  the  tragical  ending 
of  several  of  Erasmus's  early  friendships 
through  the  diversity  of  religion.  In 
every  case  the  breach  was  made  irreparable 
by  his  friend,  and  in  no  instance  was  it 

132 


HIS  FRIENDS  AND  CORRESPONDENTS 

Erasmus's  own  act.  Of  course,  the  attack 
on  Luther  began  from  his  side,  but  Luther 
was  one  of  his  minor  correspondents  and 
in  no  sense  a  friend, 

A  still  more  tragical  end  of  another 
friend  was  that  of  Louis  de  Berquin,  He 
was  a  brilliant  scholar  and  was  for  long 
under  the  protection  of  Francis  I,  but  he 
translated  into  French  some  of  Luther's 
writings  and  the  par/emenf  of  Paris  ordered 
his  arrest.  Besides  that  obvious  offence 
he  was  accused  of  translating  Erasmus's 
Querula  Pacts,  Encomium  MatrimoniaCy 
Inqutsttlo  de  Fide^  and  the  Modus  orandl 
Deum.  These  were  condemned  by  the 
Sorbonne  for  reasons  which  are  not 
apparent.  Nothing  could  be  less  heretical 
than  are  these  works  of  Erasm^us.  The 
doctors  of  the  Sorbonne  then  and  for  long 
after  had  peculiarly  acute  scent  for  heresy. 
We  can  only  guess  that  they  had  an  especial 
antipathy  to  marriage,  although  it  is  a 
sacrament,  and,  as  Frenchmen,  a  rooted 
distaste  for  international  peace.  Be  that 
as  it  may,  Berquin  escaped  with  diffi- 
culty, only  to  be  arrested  by  the  Bishop 
of  Amiens,  from  whose  custody  he  was 

133 


ERJSMUS  OF  ROTTERDJM 

released  by  Marguerite  de  Valois.  Ber-- 
quin  then  violently  attacked  the  Sorbonne 
and  all  its  works  in  a  manner,  this  time, 
clearly  heretical.  In  vain  Erasmus,  who 
was  very  fond  of  him,  implored  him  to  be 
more  moderate.  Finally,  Berquin  was 
rearrested  and  quickly  burned  in  Paris. 

There  was  also  Jean  de  Pins,  the  anti- 
thesis of  Berquin  in  character.  He  was 
a  scholar  of  great  charm,  a  diplomatist,  and 
Bishop  of  Meaux,  1523.  Wholly  orthodox, 
Erasmus  and  Sadolet  were  among  his  best 
friends,  and  indeed  three  more  pleasant 
people  it  is  dijfficult  to  imagine. 

Lastly,  we  will  take  Juan  Vives.  He 
was  a  brilliant  Spanish  scholar  and  wrote 
on  a  variety  of  subjects,  religious,  educa- 
tional, political,  and  social.  Perhaps,  of 
all  the  intimate  friends  of  Erasmus,  he  was 
the  one  who,  after  More  and  Fisher,  was 
nearest  the  great  scholar's  heart.  The  two 
men  of  genius  were  alike  protean  in  form, 
and  Vives  was  also  ardent  in  the  cause 
of  international  peace — possibly  the  only 
man  who  in  his  heart  agreed  with  Erasmus 
on  that  subject.  Vives  enjoyed  great 
favour  in  England,  where  he  was  tutor  to 

134 


ln.i  V^^  A?>V    K-^  I 

HIS  FRIENDS  AND  CORRESPONDENT^^    . 

the  Princess  Mary.  He  fell  into  a  dis- 
grace, which  was  greatly  to  his  credit,  for 
his  support  of  Katherine  of  Aragon,  and 
had  to  leave  England.  He  spent  his  later 
years  at  Bruges,  where  he  was  visited  by 
St.  Ignatius.  Never  a  cloud  dulled  the 
friendship  of  Vives  and  Erasmus. 

The  acquaintance  of  Johann  von  Botz- 
heim,  1525,  of  noble  Alsatian  birth,  was 
made  later  in  Erasmuses  life.  Owing  to 
a  great  similarity  of  temperament,  they 
became  very  close  friends.  Botzheim  was  a 
canon  of  Konstanz,  and  at  the  Reformation 
the  chapter  moved  to  tJberlingen.  He 
often  visited  Erasmus  at  Freiburg,  and 
died  there.  Both  favoured  reform  in  its 
earlier  stages,  both  revolted  from  its  sub- 
sequent iconoclasm  and  heresy,  and  both 
died  out  of  favour  with  Catholic  and 
Protestant  alike. 

The  work  of  Erasmus  is  often  said  to 
have  been  wholly  educational,  and  that  his 
real  desire  was  for  edification  and  a  wish 
to  leave  human  society  better.  It  would 
be  truer  to  say  that  he  desired  society  to 
be  more  intellectually  honest  ;  but  it  is 
doubtful  to  what  extent  Erasmus  aimed  at 

13s 


ERJSMUS  OF  ROTTERDJM 

the  improvement  of  the  masses.  A  moralist 
he  certainly  was,  though  of  a  negative 
kind,  and  equally  certainly  one  of  the 
greatest  popularizers  of  classical  literature, 
whose  effects  were  widespread  and  lasting. 
Amongst  other  things,  he  is  responsible  for 
the  pronunciation  of  Greek  which  is  still 
in  use  in  this  country.  His  system  is 
doubtless  wrong,  but  the  effect  has  been 
lasting.  He  was  singularly  unattracted  by 
art  and  the  study  of  antiquity  and  philo- 
sophy, all  of  which  occupied  such  a  large 
place  in  the  interests  of  the  learned  world. 
At  the  same  time  he  had  the  most  un- 
bounded admiration  for  Leo  X  as  the 
perfect  type  of  Pontiff,  his  magnificence, 
kindness,  learning,  and  humanity,  his  love 
of  peace  and  of  the  arts — aims  which 
cause  no  tears  or  unhappiness.  Erasmus 
placed  him  as  high  above  his  predecessors 
as  St.  Peter's  throne  is  above  earthly 
thrones.  Erasmus  was  thinking  not  of  St. 
Gregory  or  earlier  Popes  but  literally  of 
Leo's  predecessors,  and  he  was  right.  It 
was  a  true  historical  judgement,  not  the 
device  of  the  flatterer  or  politician.  Poli- 
tician Erasmus  never  was  ;  he  could  not, 

136 


HIS  FRIENDS  AND  CORRESPONDENTS 

of  course,  have  understood  the  word  in  o.ur 
sense.  Erasmus  had  a  curious  dualism 
in  his  nature  :  a  love  of  the  Renaissance 
in  its  softer  side,  a  delight  in  the  refine- 
ments and  comforts  of  life,  and  even  its 
artificialities,  combined  with  a  love  of 
truth  and  of  practical  morality,  and  over 
all  a  scorn  of  mental  laziness  and  ignorance. 
A  strange  dualism  is  likewise  apparent  in 
his  religious  and  ecclesiastical  outlook.  In 
his  desire  to  get  back  to  the  Fathers  and 
early  Councils,  in  his  eagerness  to  popula- 
rize the  New  Testament,  and  in  his  ridicule 
of  much  that  was  associated  wdth  pilgrim- 
ages and  relics,  he  seems  to  stand,  if  not  for 
Protestantism,  at  least  for  reform  of  a  very 
marked  kind  ;  but  we  must  do  him  no 
injustice.  In  these  matters,  as  we  have 
seen,  he  diflr^ered  but  little  from  the  holiest 
and  most  orthodox  of  men.  Ignorance 
was  dense,  morality  was  at  a  low  ebb, 
abuses  and  corruption  w^ere  rife,  and  so 
long  as  they  dabbled  not  in  heresy  he  was 
with  the  party  of  reform.  An  almost 
Voltairean  delight  in  ridicule  caused  the 
offence  which  many  of  his  writings  and 
letters  gave,  and  his  prejudice  against  the 

137 


ERJSMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

scholastics  and  his  contempt  for  most  of 
the  theology  of  his  day  combined  to  give 
an  almost  Protestant  aspect  to  his  work. 
In  spite  of  all  this  he  retained  a  real  rever- 
ence for  authority.  He  distinguished  very 
clearly  between  the  authority  of  Popes  (and 
bishops)  and  the  self-made  infallibility 
which  characterised  the  attitude  towards 
himself  of  some  doctors  of  theology  and 
of  some  of  the  orders.  In  other  words, 
when  the  Church  spoke  in  matters  of  faith 
he  submitted,  but  in  points  of  scholarship 
he  would  admit  no  superiority  of  theo- 
logians over  himself.  Possibly  a  some- 
what proud  attitude — and  our  scholar  was 
not  famed  for  humility — but  honest  and 
justified  in  fact.  Erasmus,  in  scholarship 
and  learning,  was  a  head  and  shoulders  over 
his  enemies,  whether  of  Oxford,  Paris, 
or  Louvain.  He  would  take  no  part  in 
spreading  heresy,  although  in  a  sense  he 
gave  it  an  intellectual  basis,  and  broke 
with  all  his  acquaintances  who  definitely 
threw  in  their  lot  with  Luther  or  other* 
reformers.  One  of  Erasmus's  great  aims 
was  the  reconciliation  of  Catholicism  and 
antiquity.     In  spiteof  his  neo-Platonism — 

138 


HIS  FRIENDS  AND  CORRESPONDENTS 

and  Florentine  learning  had  been  his 
direct  inspiration — his  interest  in  religion 
was  far  more  real  than  in  philosophy. 
Keenly  alive  to  the  pharisaism  of  the  day^. 
rightly  or  wrongly  he  regarded  the  Chris- 
tian religion  as  in  danger  of  being  reduced 
overmuch  to  the  observance  of  rites  and 
formulae,  and  thought  that  this  detracted 
from  the  devotion  which  was  due  to  Our 
Lord.  In  some  respects  in  the  freedom  of 
his  criticism  of  Scripture,  notably  in  the 
doubts  he  expressed  as  to  St.  Paul's 
authorship  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
and  as  to  the  identity  of  the  St.  John  of  the 
Apocalypse  with  the  Evangelist,  he  went 
far  beyond  the  reformers,  but  not  beyond 
some  writers  of  the  Early  Church.  He> 
however,  never  persisted  in  any  rash  views  ; 
as  M.  Denis  well  says :  ''  Chez  lui  le  coeur 
etait  moins  audacieux  que  la  pensee.''  ^ 
At  one  time  the  arbiter  of  cultivated 
Europe,  he  felt  all  the  bitterness  of  failure 
when  hostility  enveloped  him  on  every 
side.  He  was  mistaken  in  looking  for  a 
period  of  light  and  peace,  for  a  world  freed 
from  hatred  and  barren  disputes,  and  the 

1  "  His  feeling  was  less  bold  than  his  brain." 
139 


ERASMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

State  of  Europe,  after  1520,  was  the 
measure  of  his  disappointment  ;  but  the 
mistake  does  not  detract  from  his  credit, 
though  his  optimism,  like  that  of  many 
a  good  man,  was  unwarranted.  Reason- 
ableness and  light,  though  not  exactly  in 
the  sense  of  Matthew  Arnold,  were  what 
lie  greatly  desired,  and  it  seemed  to  him 
incredible  that,  in  a  world  so  full  of  interest 
and  delight,  people  should  engage  in 
barren  disputes  and  futile  strife. 

This  attitude  was  the  cause  of  his 
antagonism  to  Luther,  whom  he  felt  to  be 
an  ignorant  barbarian  ;  of  his  quarrel 
with  Hutten,  whom  he  really  liked,  but 
"whom  he  knew  to  be  a  firebrand,  whilst  the 
reasonableness  of  Melanchthon  prevented 
any  serious  differences.  Above  all,  let 
us  remember  that  Erasmus  was  intensely 
human.  He  lived  as  a  good  Catholic, 
from  feeling  the  innate  reasonableness 
of  the  position  of  the  Church.  Intense 
convictions,  in  the  Protestant  sense,  he 
never  felt,  and  he  was  wholly  unaffected 
by  the  logic  which  gave  their  strength  to 
some  of  the  new-fangled  systems.  Erasmus 
was   enormously   influenced   by  those  of 

140 


HJS  FRIENDS  AND  CORRESPONDENTS 

whom  he  was  fond,  and  personal  affection 
had  more  to  do  with  his  ultimate  beliefs 
than  any  process  of  reason.  Newman 
indeed  wrote  : 

"  The  heart  is  commonly  not  reached 
through  the  reason,  but  through  the  imagina- 
tion by  means  of  direct  impressions.  Persons 
influence  us,  voices  melt  us,  deeds  inflame  us. 
We  are  not  converted  by  syllogisms.'^ 

His  affection  for  Blessed  Thomas  More 
and  Blessed  John  Fisher,  for  Warham  and 
Colet,  his  admiration  for  their  learning 
and  the  effect  of  the  martyrdom  of  the  first 
two  had  as  much  as  anything  to  do  with 
his  rejection  of  the  new  religion  and  his 
adherence  to  Catholicism,  whilst  the 
rebellion  of  several  for  whom  he  had  real 
affection  against  the  Church,  caused  him 
real  grief  and  increased  his  dislike  of  the 
Reformation. 

Not  many  years  ago  we  should  have  said 
that  the  Erasmian  spirit,  rejected  in  the 
early  sixteenth  century,  had  returned  to 
bring  reasonableness  amongst  men  ;  but 
at  the  present  moment  we  are  conscious 
of  distinct  reaction.     As   at  the  close   of 

141 


ERJSMUS  OF  ROTTERDAM 

Erasmus's  life,  those  who  counsel  peace, 
re?.sonableness,  and  moderation  obtain  a 
poor  hearing,  ''  Cum  his  qui  oderunt 
pacem  eram  pacificus,  cum  loquebar  illis 
impugnabant  me  gratis."  ^ 

After  all,  Erasmus  and  those  like  him 
will  never  be  exactly  popular,  though 
commanding  genius  will  always  make  its 
influence  felt  ;  the  Luthers,  men  not 
necessarily  base  but  stupid,  who  shout, 
**  Cursed  be  concord  !  Dov/n  with  it  to  the 
bottomless  pit  ! "  will  always  be  more 
loudly  cheered. 

1  "Amongst  those  who  hated  peace  I  was  pacific.  JVhen 
I  spoke  to  them  about  it  they  attacked  me  without  provo- 
cation." 


142 


Index  of  Names 


Adrian  VI :  66,  89-92 
Aldrich  :  53 
Aleander :  yy,  note 
Ammonius :  62,  note 
Andrelini :  123 
Arnold,  M. :  140 

Bacchem  :  74 
Batt :  47 
Ber:  102,  115 
Berquin  :  133,  134 
Bersala,  Anne  :  40,  47 
Blount :    41  ;    as  Lord  Mount- 
joy:   50,  59,  77,  81,  93,  103 
Boleyn,  Anne :  104 
Boniface  VIII  :  97 
Botzheiin  :  135 
Bourbon,  Constable  de  :  97 

Caesarius  :  129,  130 

Cajetano ;  66 

Calvin  :  23,  28,  82 

Cambrai,   Bishop   of :    39,   40, 

47,  59 
Campeggio  :  76,  77,  103,  124 
Capito  :  128,  note 
Carlstadt :  82,  note 
Cellarius  :  82 
Charles  VIII  :  19 
Charles,    Archduke  :     63 ;     as 

Emperor:  76,  79,  80,  90,  93, 

96,  97,  98,  99,  105,  106 
Chamock :  116 
Chesterton  :  24,  42 
Chieregato  :  62  note 
Clement  VII  :   92,  96,  103,  104, 

106,  107 
Colet:    21,  28,  43,  53,  55,  67, 

116,  117,  118,  120,  12S,  141 
Cranmer :  51,  107 
Cromwell,  T. :  23 

Edward  VI  :  102,  105,  126 
Eginond  (Carmelite)  :  74 

Faber  (Dominican)  :  96,  115 
Ferdinand,  Archduke  :  99,  103, 

106 
Ficino :  19 
Fisher,  Blessed  J.  :   49,  50,  67, 

81,  93,  95,  107,  108,  109,  128, 

134,  141 


Francis  1 :  9G,  106,  133 
Freundsberg  :  97 

Goes  :  no  note 
Goethe :  19,  25 
Gregory,  St. :  136 
Grey  :  41,  note 
Grimani :  52,  126 
GrocyTi :  43,  116 
Guildford,  Sir  H. :  77 

Henry  VIII :  23,  50,  52,  65,  74, 
77,  95,  loi,  103, 104, 106, 107, 
108,  109 
Hesse,  Landgraf  of  :  78 
Hochstrat  (Dominican),  64,  74 
Hutten,  U.von  :  32,  70,  92,  93, 
124  note,  12S,  140 

Ignatius,  St.  :  85,  86 

Jesus,  Society  of  :  85,  Z6 

Jodocus :  80 

Julius  II  :    17,  48,  50,  59,  123 

Katherine    (of   Aragon)  :     103, 

104,  135 
Knox  :  23 
Kock :  132 

Lee  :  74,  131 

Leo  X  :   18,  37,  48,  50,  64,  65, 

66,  68,  72,  89,  120,  124,  136 
Livy :  24 
Lypsius  :  130,  131 
Luther  :  20,  23,  67  et  scq.,  105, 

113, 131, 133, 140 

Machlavelli:  80 

Mainz,  Elector  of:  70,  71,  91, 12S 

Marck  :  127 

Maximilian  :  59,  64 

Melanchthon :  22,  67,  80,  82, 
96,  105,  128,  129,  140 

Meno  :  27 

Meyer  :  131 

Mirandola,  Pico  :  19,  20 

More,  Blessed  T.  :  21,  43,  44, 
55,  67,  81,  93,  96,  106-109, 
116,  121,  122,  128,  134,  141 

Mount  joy  ;  41 

Myconius  :  129,  note 


143 


INDEX 


Newman  (Cardinal)  :   141 

Oecolampadius  :  102,  note,  128 
Orange,  Prince  of  :  97 

Pace:  77 

Pascal :  112 

Paul  III  :   107,  108,  no,  III 

Peter  (brother  of  Erasmus),  37 

PfcfTerkorn  :  65 

Pflug  84 

Philip  IV  :  97 

Pins  de  :  134 

Pirkheimer :  65,  102 

Poliziano :  19,  28 

Porto  da  :  24 

Pucci :  32 

Reuchlin  :  63-65 

Richelieu :  33 

Rogerus  Servatius  :   40,  59-62 

Sadolet :  67, 104,  no  note,  118, 

134 
St.  Bertin  (Abbot  of)  :   46 
Ste.  Jeanne  Dare  :   123 
San  Giorgio  (Cardinal)  :  48,  49, 

64,  66 
Savonarola  :  80 


Saxony,  Elector  of:  22,  69,  76, 

78,  80,  92 
Saxony,  Duke  in  :  80,  93 
Scala  :  32 
Schiller  :  84 

Schinncr  (Cardinal)  :  126,  note 
Sigismund  :   80 
Standish  :   74 
Symonds,  J.  A.  :   19 

Tetzel :   70-72 
Thomas,  St. :  119,  120 
Trent,  Council  of  :  23,  38,  72 
Tuns  tall :  115,  128 
Turszo  :  131 

Valois,  Marguerite  de :  134 
Vergil  Polydore  :  123 
Vives  :  134,  135 

Warham  :  21,  43,  51,  52,  67,  80, 
93,  97,  103,  106, 115,  128, 141 
Wiclif  :  95 

Wied  (Archbishop  of  Koln)  :  128 
VVildenauer  :  132 
Wolsey  :   69,  77,  116 

Zwingli :   82,  129  note 


Printedin  England  for  the  Amhrosden  Press  by  Hazell,  Watson  6-  Viney,  Ld., 
London  and  Aylesbury. 


2  7  018  4 


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